ON GENERATION. 469 



without any kind of pleasurable sensation whatsoever. But 

 of these things more in another place. 



The vulva, or vagina uteri, which extends from the os exter- 

 num to the inner orifice of the uterus, is situated in the hind, 

 as well as in the human female, between the urinary bladder 

 and the intestinum rectum, and corresponds in length, width, 

 and general dimensions, with the penis of the male. When this 

 part is laid open it is found occupied lengthwise by rugae and 

 furrows, admitting of ready distension, and lubricated with a 

 sluggish fluid. At its bottom we observe a very narrow and 

 small orifice, the commencement of the cervix uteri, by which 

 whatever is propelled outwards from the cavity of the uterus 

 must pass. This is the corresponding orifice to that which 

 medical men assert is so firmly closed and sealed up in the 

 pregnant woman and virgin, that it will not even admit the 

 point of a probe or fine needle. 



The os uteri is followed by the cervix or process, which is 

 much longer and rounder than in woman, and also more fibrous, 

 thicker, and nervous ; it extends from the bottom of the vagina 

 to the body of the uterus. If this cervix uteri be divided lon- 

 gitudinally, you perceive not only its external orifice at the 

 bottom of the vagina, its surface in close contact, and so firmly 

 agglutinated that not even air blown into the vagina will pe- 

 netrate the cavity of the uterus, but five other similar con- 

 strictions placed in regular order, firmly contracted against the 

 entrance of any foreign body and sealed with gelatinous mucus ; 

 just as we find the narrow orifice of the woman's uterus plugged 

 with a yellowish glutinous mass. A like constriction of parts, 

 all firmly closed, and precluding all possibility of entrance, 

 Fabricius has found in the uterine neck of the sheep, sow, and 

 goat. In the deer there are very distinctly five of these con- 

 strictions, or so many orifices of the uterus constricted and con- 

 glutinated, which may all justly be looked upon as so many 

 barriers against the entrance of anything from without. Such 

 particular care has nature taken, that if the first barrier were 

 forced by any cause or violence, the second should .still stand 

 good, and so the third, and the fourth, and the fifth, deter- 

 mined apparently that nothing should enter. A probe pushed 

 from within outwards, however, from the cavity of the uterus 

 towards the vagina, passes through readily. A way had to be 



