HOWEVER, the _Danger_ of the _SYMPTOM_ is not great; because after a safe _BIRTH_, when the super-abounding BLOOD and _Humours_ are evacuated, these preternatural _Tumours_ settle, and the VEINS return to their _Pristine State_.
WHEREFORE the only necessary _Relief_ of this Malady, consists chiefly in the _Woman’s_ abstaining from too much _Walking_, and all other extravagant _Exercises_; upon indulging her _inferiour Limbs_, by keeping them rais’d upon a _Couch_ or _Stool_, that the BLOOD may not settle too much to these _lower Parts_: Or (which is far better) let her prudently keep her _Bed_; in which _Posture_, the BLOOD can meet with no such _Difficulty_ in returning by these _Veins_ to the HEART, as it will find when it must ascend by the _Woman’s SITTING_ or _STANDING_ upright; so that consequently it must needs _circulate_ the more readily and with more _Ease_. Hence in short, it is, that from this more Free and Easy CIRCULATION in _Bed_, such _Women_ are always more easy, or better dispos’d, and far less _pain’d_ or troubled in the _Mornings_, than at _Nights_, in This Condition.
BUT if, after All, the _PATIENT’s_ Convenience will not permit such _Indulgences_, Then a proper _Swathe_ of three or four Fingers Breadth, is most adviseable; beginning to _swathe_ this _Varicose_, or _Swelling Part_, from the _Bottom upwards_, as far as the _Varices_ or _Tumours_ extend. But in Case of more _Plethorick Marks_, at last, in the _other Parts_ of the Body, _Phlebotomy_ may be most safely made Use of.
CHAP. XXV. _Of the INFLATIONS and TUMOURS of the LEGS._
THESE bloating _Symptoms_ not only happen to some _Women_ before, but also after _BIRTH_; especially when the LOCHIA, or Child-bed Cleansings, do not flow in a regular _Measure_ or sufficient _Quantity_.
THE _Cause_ of the present disorder’d _Case_, proceeds either from the Suppression of some _Aqueous Flux_ of the WOMB; or from some such _watery serous_ BLOOD descending to the LEGS; or from the Abundance of retain’d _Menstruous_ BLOOD, more than the INFANT can dispense with: which, being of no Service either to _MOTHER_ or _CHILD_, settles downwards to these aggriev’d _Parts_. But _these Things_ are to be considered with this Distinction and Difference, that if the _LIVER_ be debilitated, and the BLOOD becom’s _Pituitous_ or _Aqueous_, the _Woman_’s LEGS are so _Oedematous_ or _Tumid_, that when pressed with the Finger, it leaves the Impression of a _Dent_ and _Hollowness_: But if the BLOOD grows _corrupted_ and _bilous_, her LEGS are _inflam’d_, and sometimes occasionally _exulcerated_, as in _Scorbutick Cases_: And if none of _These_ happen, then a gross thick BLOOD only abounds, tending vitiously downwards. Upon which there are only some _Livid_ or _Blueish Marks_[81] to be discover’d with those _Tumours_, such as the _VARICES_ or _Swellings_ occasion in the preceeding _Case_.