Matrix and mother

Use in the book

The anatomical catalogue explicitly pairs “Matrix or Wombe.” Burton places it among parts capable, when disordered, of causing melancholy; Arculanus’s quoted generalization extends the possibility to any part. A nearby marginal reference likewise includes the womb among origins of the illness. This is a map of historical humoral causation, not an assertion that the organ necessarily produces melancholy.

When Burton reports Melanchthon’s view that hypochondriacal melancholy is as common in men as “the mother” in women, the term names the female comparison. Fear, grief or sudden mental disturbance may initiate the illness, especially in already poorly disposed bodies. The next passage invokes Melanchthon’s own suffering and then a separate patient of Montanus: that patient, not Melanchthon, is the subject of the final report about mental symptoms bringing on the illness.

A more specific mechanism locates putrefied blood in the seminal vessels and womb and connects retained semen or altered menstrual blood with melancholy. This is attributed to Vega and Arculanus. Yet elsewhere the same organ is only one disputed candidate: some physicians identify womb, others heart or stomach, and Crato declares the symptoms too ambiguous to establish the affected site. The confident causal catalogue and the admission of diagnostic uncertainty both belong to Burton’s compilation.

In the account of unmarried women, nuns and widows, the womb and harmful menstrual blood are assigned the originating bodily cause, while the brain is affected through communication with another part, “by consent,” rather than by a disorder originating in the brain itself. The following paragraph does not leave every case inside this bodily mechanism: it allows widows’ care and sorrow after a sudden change in their accustomed lives and says that other women are not excluded. The comparative claim is that the condition is more common in certain groups, not that it is confined to them.

The symptoms of the melancholy assigned to unmarried women, nuns and widows include a dry constriction of the throat, rising vapours, palpitation and faintness. The Latin says that the condition can scarcely be distinguished from suffocation of the womb; Burton’s English calls it “like fits of the mother.” Both formulations preserve a comparison. They should not be replaced by a confident identification with one modern disease. The preceding description emphasizes intermittent attacks, and the following paragraph continues the attributed medical list rather than introducing a new diagnosis.

The organ-targeted herbal catalogue also places the womb among body parts to which particular plant powers are ascribed; the list records historical treatment claims without establishing their efficacy.

Two marginal uses show how far the older anatomical concept extends. In the material quoted from Weyer, matrix is linked with the brain by nerves as part of a theory of maternal impressions; the claim remains a historical explanation, not evidence of maternal responsibility for bodily differences in children. In the argument about nourishment by smells, matrice names the womb supposedly moving up or down in response to an odour. Burton presents that example in a note to his report of Ficino’s disputed reasoning.

The later “lips of the womb” passage belongs to a controversy over supposed proofs of virginity. Burton first reports critics of tests based on a membrane or bleeding, then defenders who accuse those critics of favouring women. Boncialus’s reported claim about medicines producing constriction supplies a further reason such a sign would be uncertain. The accusation that women deceive examiners belongs to the cited voice and its assumptions. Nothing in this dispute authorizes a reliable test of sexual history; the local anatomical phrase must be read within the argument being transmitted.

Finally, Schenck’s example of a jealous woman with repeated fits gives “the Mother” a place in the prognostics of jealousy. Burton explains the supposed change through disturbed humours and imagination. This is an attributed case, while the neighbouring summaries show the range of destructive actions and fears he has gathered; it does not establish that the jealous woman’s suspicion was true.

Related entries

Hypochondria: The abdominal regions and their historical pathology.

Green sickness: Another historically gendered disease-name.

Maternal impressions: The larger account of maternal imagination.

Jealousy: Suspicion and its alleged bodily consequences.

Places to read

1. Subsection 2. The Power of Imagination · paragraphs 16–18Maternal-impression examples and their supposed mechanism; matrix occurs in Weyer’s Latin quotation in Burton note 2777. The neighbouring claims remain attributed historical theories.
2. Subsection 2. Disorders of Particular Parts as Causes · paragraphs 2–3Matrix or womb among bodily parts that may cause melancholy when disordered; the following authorities extend the humoral account.
3. Subsection 2. Disorders of Particular Parts as Causes · paragraph 11Vega’s and Arculanus’s attributed putrefaction and retained-matter mechanisms; note 4253 supplies the Latin utero alongside the seminal vessels.
4. Subsection 4. Causes of Hypochondriacal, or Windy, Melancholy · paragraphs 41–42Melanchthon’s comparison between men’s illness and the disorder called the mother; the continuation distinguishes his experience from Montanus’s patient.
5. Subsection 2 Symptoms of Windy Hypochondriacal Melancholy · paragraphs 11–12Disputed womb, heart and stomach diagnoses, followed by a warning that fear and sorrow are not universal symptoms.
6. Subsection 4 Symptoms of Melancholy in Unmarried Women, Nuns and Widows · paragraphs 28–32, 1–2The originating womb/menstrual-blood account, sympathetic effects on the brain, changed circumstances of widows and the intermittent symptom account; the dry-throat construction and qualified resemblance to suffocation of the womb; the full preceding marginal quotation is preserved in note 4697.
7. Subsection 3 Alteratives Herbs and Other Plant Remedies · paragraphs 5–7The womb in the organ-targeted herbal catalogue and the transition to remedies for particular diseases.
8. Subsection 5 Alteratives and Cordials That Strengthen the Body, Disperse the Remaining Matter and Improve the Temperament · paragraphs 16–17The disputed question of nourishment by smell, the womb example in Burton note 7949 and the following Democritus anecdote.
9. Symptoms of Jealousy: Fear, Sorrow, Suspicion, Strange Actions, Gestures, Outrages, Confinement, Oaths, Trials, Laws, and So On · paragraphs 36–40Alleged proofs of virginity, objections and defenders, then the lips-of-the-womb constriction and literary digression. Burton notes 11661–63 accompany the medical claim; editor note 11664 qualifies the anatomy.
10. Prognostics of Jealousy: Despair, Madness, Killing Themselves and Others · paragraphs 12–13The jealousy-case catalogue and Schenck’s reported woman with fits of the Mother; disturbed humours and imagination supply Burton’s causal frame.

In this edition

“Matrix or Wombe” → “matrix or womb” retains the explicit anatomical synonym. “the mother” becomes “the disorder called ‘the mother’” in the modern comparison: disorder called is explanatory supply. In the actual modern body the quotation marks around the name are double. “fits of the mother” → “fits of the womb” at the symptom comparison, while “fits of the Mother” → “fits of the mother” retains the historical name in the jealousy case. These differing choices distinguish an explained organ-name from a retained disease-name.

“uteri labiorum” contributes “of the lips of the womb” to the larger phrase about constriction. It is not an isolated nominative phrase, and the modern word-order reverses the order of the two Latin genitives. The note explains why this wording does not identify the site as the anatomical uterus. The marginal forms matrix and matrice have their own supplied note translations and are kept distinct from the continuous English body.

Fits of the mother · fits of the mother

Printed “fits of the mother” (English; phrase).

Attacks attributed to the womb in historical uterine pathology.

Here: A comparison for symptoms said to be difficult to distinguish from uterine suffocation.

Context: Burton’s like preserves resemblance; the Latin says scarcely distinguishable, not simply identical.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: like fits of the mother

Modern rendering: like fits of the womb

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

Fits of the mother · fits of the Mother

Printed “fits of the Mother” (English; phrase).

Repeated attacks attributed to the womb.

Here: The disorder is presented as a consequence of jealousy disturbing humours and imagination.

Context: Burton reports an example in Schenck; the case is an attributed observation within historical physiology, not a modern diagnosis.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: a jealous woman that by this means had many fits of the Mother

Modern rendering: a jealous woman who suffered many fits of the mother through this cause

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

Matrix · Matrix or Wombe

Printed “Matrix or Wombe” (English; lemma).

Matrix and womb name the same reproductive organ in this anatomical list.

Here: The organ is one of the bodily parts that disordered humours were thought capable of making a source of melancholy.

Context: Burton begins with almost no part, then quotes Arculanus’s more categorical statement; the causal condition is that the part is disordered.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Matrix or Wombe

Modern rendering: matrix or womb

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

Further local use

Printed “womb” (English; lemma).

Citation key: Womb.

Here: The womb is one alleged site of putrefied blood in the explanation attributed to Vega.

Context: Burton reports Vega’s claimed experience and Arculanus’s related retention theory; the reported mechanism is historical.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: putrefied bloud in those Seed-veins and womb

Modern rendering: putrefied blood in the seminal vessels and womb

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

Further local use

Printed “utero” (Latin; lemma).

Citation key: Uterus.

Here: Utero is the ablative of uterus after in, naming the womb beside the seminal vessels.

Context: The phrase is Burton’s Latin marginal support for the reported reproductive-matter explanation.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording and original alignment: in vasis seminariis & utero

Modern rendering: in the seminal vessels and womb

Alignment scope: Equal-scope Latin phrase and supplied English translation in the same note

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

Modern container: note

Further local use

Printed “womb” (English; lemma).

Citation key: Womb.

Here: The womb is the target organ of one group in the historical herbal catalogue.

Context: Burton reports organ-specific powers ascribed to plants; this organ label does not establish their efficacy.

Source: original body

Source and modern wording: For the womb

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

Matrix · matrix

Printed “matrix” (Latin; lemma).

Matrix means womb.

Here: The womb is linked to the brain in a proposed mechanism by which maternal imagination marks a foetus.

Context: The Latin note quotes Weyer; the historical causal claim must not be treated as evidence that a mother’s thoughts cause bodily differences in her child.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording and original alignment: per nervos, quibus matrix cerebro conjuncta est

Modern rendering: along the nerves joining womb and brain

Alignment scope: Corresponding phrase in the original Latin quotation and its supplied English translation within the same note

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

Modern container: note

Matrix · matrice

Printed “matrice” (Latin; lemma).

Matrice is an inflected form of matrix, womb.

Here: The supposedly moving womb is an example adduced in the dispute about whether smells nourish.

Context: Burton’s marginal report of Ficino’s argument supplies this example; the body marks nourishment by smell as a disputed question.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording and original alignment: Instat in matrice, quòd sursum & deorsum ad odoris sensum præcipitatur

Modern rendering: He gives the instance of the womb, which rushes upward and downward on sensing a smell

Alignment scope: Equal-scope Latin sentence and supplied English translation within the same note

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

Modern container: note

The mother

Printed “the mother” (English; phrase).

The mother names a historical disorder attributed to the womb.

Here: It is the female comparator for the frequency of hypochondriacal melancholy among men.

Context: Burton attributes the comparison to Melanchthon; the grammatical comparison does not give men wombs or call their disorder the mother.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: as common to men, as the mother to women

Modern rendering: as common in men as the disorder called “the mother” is in women

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The indexed phrase names the second disorder; the modern text supplies disorder called to expose the historical idiom.

Alignment qualification: The supplied words disorder called explain the name rather than translate separate words in the original.

Uteri labia

Printed “uteri labiorum” (Latin; phrase).

Uteri means of the womb, labiorum of the lips; the whole genitive phrase qualifies constriction.

Here: The expression points locally to the genital opening in imprecise historical anatomy, not precisely to the modern anatomical uterus.

Context: Burton reports Boncialus’s objection to an alleged virginity test; they claim marks the theory under challenge, and the subsequent accusation of deception remains his reported claim.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: naturalem illam uteri labiorum constrictionem, in qua virginitatem consistere volunt

Modern rendering: the natural constriction of the lips of the womb, in which they claim virginity consists

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The genitives yield of the lips of the womb; natural constriction belongs to the full phrase, not to the definition of either noun.

Uteri strangulatio

Printed “uteri strangulatione” (Latin; phrase).

Uteri means of the womb; strangulatione means constriction or suffocation, here in an ablative phrase governed by ab.

Here: The constricted dry throat is said to make this condition resemble the historically named uterine disorder.

Context: The statement continues the medical symptom account from Rodericus and Aretaeus; it describes a difficulty of distinguishing conditions.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: fauces siccitate præcluduntur, ut difficulter possit ab uteri strangulatione decerni

Modern rendering: The throat is closed by dryness, so that the condition can scarcely be distinguished from suffocation of the womb

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: Uteri strangulatione supplies suffocation of the womb; the preceding ab supplies from. The complete result construction says the condition is scarcely distinguishable, and condition is supplied to complete the English subject.

Uterus

Printed “utero” (Latin; lemma).

Utero is the ablative of uterus, womb; ab marks the source on which the cause depends.

Here: The organ and harmful menstrual blood are assigned the primary bodily cause, while the brain is affected sympathetically.

Context: The whole cause is the emphatic claim of the inherited reproductive account; Burton’s continuation also admits changed circumstances and sorrow among widows.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Universa enim hujus affectus causa ab utero pendet, & à sanguinis menstrui malitia

Modern rendering: For the whole cause of this affection depends upon the womb and the harmful condition of the menstrual blood

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: Ab utero contributes upon the womb; the whole cause and the menstrual-blood qualification belong to the complete sentence.

Womb

Printed “womb” (English; lemma).

The female reproductive organ, the womb; here one proposed affected organ among competing diagnoses.

Here: The naming exposes disagreement rather than identifying the organ conclusively.

Context: Burton reports consultations in which physicians cannot agree which part is chiefly affected, then quotes Crato’s general uncertainty.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: some said the womb, some heart, some stomack

Modern rendering: Some said the womb, some the heart, some the stomach

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.