CHAPTER XII 



C 171 r ON THE FEMALE TESTES OR OVARIES 



THE TESTES of womcn differ much from those of the male as to posi- 

 tion, form, size, substance, integuments, and function, as we are 

 about to describe. 



Thus, they have not an external position as in men, but are located 

 in the lowest portion of the abdominal cavity about two finger 

 breadths from each side of the fundus of the uterus, to which they 

 are attached by a strong ligament which is called "Vas Deferens" by 

 many anatomists, because they believed that semen was transferred 

 through it from the testes to the uterus; on the other sides they are 

 firmly attached to the peritoneum about the region of the iliac bone 

 by the spermatic vessels, which supply them, and by the membranes 

 with which the spermatic vessels are involved; so that the testes, fixed 

 [^172] on each side, as if suspended, reach about the same level as the fundus 

 of the uterus in the non-pregnant; in the pregnant, however, although 

 they follow the fundus of the uterus to some extent, they do not rise 

 to an equal degree, and thus, the more the fundus of the uterus rises, 

 the farther they are from it, always keeping a lower position. 



The testicles are not suspended by any cremaster muscle, although 

 some state this opinion, following Soranus. 



They are located in the interior cavity of the abdomen, in order 

 that they may be nearer the uterus and serve the better and more 

 easily their intended purpose, which will be fully demonstrated below. 



The testes of women, since they are broad and flattened on their 

 anterior and posterior sides, differ much from those of men, for in 

 their lower part they have a semi-oval bulge, while in the upper part, 

 which the blood vessels enter, they appear more flat than humped, 

 C 173 H so that the testicles when separated from the blood vessels and the 

 ligaments present a somewhat flattened semi-oval form. 



The surface is more uneven than in males, because on account of 

 the contents it projects unequally here and there, and displays certain 

 small fissures in different places from time to time, due to depression 

 or retraction of its coverings. Moreover, their size varies not a little 

 with age, for in developing girls and [in women] in the flower of their 

 life they weigh almost one and a half drachms, so that they attain a 

 size about half that of the male testis, although in proportion they 

 are wider and more succulent. In the old and decrepit, they are 

 smaller, firmer, and more dried up, and slowly wither more and more, 



* Numbers in the margin indicate the pages of the original Latin text of 1672. Words in 

 brackets are exphmatory additions by the translator. 



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