ACTION Oi 1 THE FEMALE. 



957 



general health. This is still more the case with the solitary indulgence, which 

 (it is to be feared) is practised by too many youths ; for this, substituting an 

 unnatural degree of one kind of excitement for that which is wanting in another, 

 cannot but be still more trying to the bodily powers. The secretion of seminal 

 fluid being, like other secretions, very much under the control of the nervous 

 system, will be increased by the continual direction of the mind towards objects 

 which awaken the sexual propensity ( 948, note); and thus, if intercourse be 

 very frequent, a much larger quantity will ; altogether be produced, although 

 the amount emitted at each period will be less. The formation of the secretion 

 seems of itself to be a much greater tax upon the corporeal powers than might 

 have been supposed d priori : and it is a well-known fact that the highest 

 degree of bodily vigor is inconsistent with more than a very moderate indulg- 

 ence in sexual intercourse ; whilst nothing is more certain to reduce the powers, 

 both of body and mind, than excess in this respect. These principles, which 

 are of great importance in the regulation of the health, are but results of the 

 general law, which prevails equally in the Vegetable and Animal kingdoms 

 that the Development of the Individual, and the Reproduction of the Species, 

 stand in an inverse ratio to each other. 



3. Action of the Female. 



962. The essential part of the Female Generative system is that in which 

 the Ova are prepared; the other organs are merely accessory, and are not to be 

 found in a large proportion of the Animal kingdom. In many of the lower 

 animals, the Ovaria and Testes are so extremely like each other, that the dif- 

 ference between them can scarcely be distinguished ; and the same is true re- 

 garding the condition of these organs in Man, at an early period of development. 

 The fact is one of no small interest. In many of the lower animals, the Ovarium 

 consists of a loose tissue containing many cells, in which the Ova are formed, 

 and from which they escape by the rupture of the cell-walls ; in the higher 

 animals, as in the Human female, the tissue of the Ovarium is more compact, 

 forming what is known as the stroma ; and the Ova, except when they are ap- 

 proaching maturity, can only be distinguished in the interstices of this, by the 



Fig. 241. 



Diagram of a Graafian vesicle, containing an ovum : 1. Stroma or tissue of the ovary. 2 and 3. External 

 and internal tunics of the Graafian vesicle. 4. Cavity of the vesicle. 5. Thick tunic of the ovum, or yelk- 

 sac. 6. The yelk. 7. The germinal vesicle. 8. The germinal spot. 



aid of a high magnifying power. The Ovum in all Vertebrated animals is pro- 

 duced within a ' capsule or bag, the exterior of which is in contact with the 

 stroma of the ovarium ; this has been termed, in Mammalia, the Graafian vesick, 



