9  CULPEPER’s ENGLISH PHYSICIAN, 
nourifh the foetus till the time of birth, The fhort neck of the womb, which is its 
_- inner neck, is. that which contains the orifice, leading immediately into the cavity of 
the womb this orifice is a hole not large, but fuch as may admit a probe or large. 
quill, and like a mouth may be dilated or purfed in: this entrance is buta tranfyerfe. 
“line, which when it is exaétly opened becometh round : this hole after ¢ conception is 
fo clofely fhut, that it will not admit the point of a bodkin ; but at the time of deli- - 
very, it opens itfelf wide according to the magnitude of the infant, be it ever fo 
great, The cavity of this neck is rough, arifing from wrinkles, whofe edges tend 
inwards, left the feed which has been caft in fhould flow out again, as is feenin fuch 
barrea women as have the flipperinefs of the womb. The fundus, or bottom, is the - 
moft capacious part of the womb, feated above the os pubis, that it may be there 
diftended. The external furface of the womb j is fmooth and even, covered as it 
were with a kind of humidity : its inner furface is full of porofities, which are 
mouths through which, in time of a woman’s breeding, blood paffes out of the vel- 
{els of the womb, to nourith the child. Within the orifice of the inner neck grows. 
a caruncle, which exactly fhuts the hole; in which caruncle are to be feen pores 
which feem to be at the end of the vafa deferentia, terminating at the neck. . This 
neck of the womb is opened in fuperfoeration, i in an abortion, in an ejection of. a. 
falfe conception, but efpecially after a wonderful manner at the time of child-birth, 
when it is widened according to the magnitude of the child: at this (faith Galen) we 
may wonder, but we cannot underftand it: therefore it is our duty to acknowledge 
the wifdom and power of him that made us. The external or greater neck of the 
womb, called /inus pudoris, is a long channel, hollow, (even while the child is in the 
womb,) and fituate between the vulva and interna) orifice of the womb, being that 
paflage which receives the penis in coition. Its figure is long, (nearly feven inches,) 
hollow, (large enough to entertain the penis,) and wrinkled within: but its lengt h 
nd ee: are hardly determinable; fome fay it is as wide as the inteftinum rectum, 
nis bei g always i in coition clofely embraced by i it. Its fubstance is ‘shard and 
nervous kind of fieth, and a little fpungy like the yard, wrinkled within (chiefly i in 
Upper part) that it might be occafionally dilated, Laftly, towards the mid 
or externa . : this te neck, in the fore and upper part, near the vulva, is 
Which ig hort do dtraight, bust diacaBle cio wish eed with 
a flefhy inne but within Bet and of the fame fubftance with the urethra i in 
