OF THE GENITAL FUNCTION OF WOMAN. 343 



and it is probable, that, during the adult state, these 

 drops become mature in succession, so that they one 

 by one force their way and finally burst the covering of 

 the ovarium and are received by the abdominal extre- 

 mity of the Fallopian tube. 



552. Besides the albuminous drop which escapes 

 from the ovarium, another fluid, improperly styled fe- 

 male semen by the ancients, is poured forth during the 

 venereal oestrum. Its nature, source, and quantity, are 

 enveloped in no less mystery than its office.* 



NOTES. 



(A) Blumenbach states it to be a prolongation of the labia on 

 the authority of Le Vaillant, but we are now certain that W. 

 ten Rhyne was correct, and that it is a prolongation of the 

 nymphae,f which often hang five inches below the labia. The 

 same tribe of Hottentot women have another connate singularity 

 in the same quarter, common also to a variety of their sheep, and 

 the source of all the charms of the Hottentot Venus a brilliant 

 example of denomination on the principle of lucus a non lucendo. 

 Her immense and tremulous buttocks displayed on dissection an 

 enormous accumulation of fat between the skin and muscles. J 



(B) Cuvier declares he has found the hymen in very many mam- 

 malia, overthrowing the doctrine, so strenuously maintained by 



* Respecting this problematical fluid see Carpus on Mundinus, P. cxcviii sqq. 

 and cccviij. 



Harvey, De Generatione Animal, p. 95. 



De Graaf, De Mulierum Organis. p. 194. 



f Dr. Soiuerville, Med.Chr. Trans. 1816. Barrow, Travels into the interior 

 of Southern Africa, v. i. 



J Cuvier,. Me'moires du Museum. T. 3. p. 269. 



Le?. d'Anat. camp. T. v. p. 131-2. 



