Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Barrenness

BARRENNESS, a term synonimous to sterility, in opposition to fecundity. That the creation might not degenerate, Nature has wisely ordained barrenness to all monstrous productions; and hence the sterility of mules, &c.

Women frequently become barren after a miscarriage, or difficult labour. Sterility in either sex may also arise from a schirrosity or induration in the organs, by which their functions become impaired, and sometimes even destroyed. The causes of sterility, however, are much more frequent in the female than in the male sex: and these causes, in general, are, schirrosities and obstructions, arising from fear, grief, inordinate passions, intemperance, neglect of cleanliness; but more frequently, in consequence oi inveterate complaints of a periodical nature, peculiar to the sex.

Dr. Haselquist, in his Travels to the Levant, advises married persons to drink, every night, a teacupful of clove-water for the cure of this complaint.—We have inserted this whimsical recipe, not because any reliance can be placed on so trifling a remedy, but in order to attest the inefficacy of medicines on such occasions, and to assure those who forsake the path of Nature, and expert relief from Art, that they will certainly be disappointed, unless they adopt a more temperate and regular mode of life.