962 OF GENERATION. 



above 50 years of age have borne children. There is usually no menstrual flow 

 during pregnancy and lactation ; in fact, the cessation of the catamenia is gene- 

 rally one of the first signs, indicating that conception has taken place. But it 

 is by no means uncommon for them to appear once or twice subsequently to 

 conception ; and in some women, there is a regular monthly discharge, though 

 probably not of the usual secretion, through the whole period. Some very 

 anomalous cases are on record, in which the catamenia never appeared at any 

 other time than during pregnancy; and were then regular. The absence of the 

 catamenia during lactation is by no means constant, especially if the period be 

 prolonged ; when the menstrual discharge recurs, it may be considered as indi- 

 cating an aptitude for conception ; and it is well known that, although preg- 

 nancy seldom recurs during the continuance of lactation, the rule is by no means 

 invariable. 



968. The function of the Female, during the coitus, is essentially passive. 

 When the sexual feeling is strongly excited, there is a considerable degree of 

 turgescence in the erectile tissue surrounding the vagina, and composing the 

 greater part of the nymphas and the clitoris; and there is an increased secretion 

 from various glandular follicles. 1 But these changes are by no means neces- 

 sary for effectual coition ; since it is a fact well established, that fruitful inter- 

 course may take place, when the female is in a state of narcotism, of somnambu- 

 lism, or even of profound ordinary sleep. It has been supposed by some, that 

 the os uteri dilates, by a kind of reflex action, to receive the semen; but of 

 this there is no evidence. The introduction of a small quantity of the fluid 

 just within the vagina appears to be all that is absolutely necessary for con- 

 ception ; for there are many cases on record, in which pregnancy has occurred, 

 in spite of the closure of the entrance to the vagina by a strong membrane, in 

 which but a very small aperture existed. That the spermatozoa make their 



1 The glands Qf Duverney have been very accurately described by Professor Tiedemann 

 (1840), his attention having been directed to those organs by the late Dr. Fricke, of Ham- 

 burg. These glands are situated at either side of the entrance of the vagina, beneath the 

 integument covering the inferior part of the vagina, as well as the superficial perineal 

 fascia and the constrictor vaginae muscle. The space they occupy lies between the lower 

 end of the vagina, the ascending ramus of the ischium, the crus clitoridis, and the erector 

 clitoridis muscle. Superiorly are the fibres of the levator ani which are attached to the 

 ischium, and behind these are the transversi-perinei muscles. They are surrounded by 

 very loose cellular tissue. They are rounded, but somewhat elongated, being flat and 

 bean-shaped. Their long diameter is from 5 to 10 lines; their transverse diameter 2J to 

 4^ lines, and they are from 2 \ to 3 lines thick. Their excretory duct is at the anterior edge 

 of the superior part of the gland, and runs beneath the constrictor vaginas, horizontally 

 forwards and inwards, to the inner face of the nympha, opening in front of the carunculae 

 myrtiformes, in the midst of a number of small mucous follicles. These glands were first 

 discovered by Duverney in the cow, about the middle of the seventeenth century. Bar- 

 tholinus subsequently found them in the human female, and his observations were con- 

 firmed by Duverney, Morgagni, Santorini, Peyer, &c. Haller denied their existence; and 

 their presence seems to have been forgotten until they were again described by Mr. Tay- 

 lor ("Dublin Journal," vol. xiii., 1838). They are analogous to Cowper's glands in the 

 male, according to Tiedemann, and like them are sometimes wanting, and differ in size. 

 In advanced age they are said to diminish in size, and even to disappear. They are pre- 

 sent in the females of all animals, where Cowper's glands exist in the males. They 

 secrete a thick, tenacious, grayish-white fluid, which is emitted in large quantity at the 

 termination of the sexual act, most likely from the spasmodic contraction of the constric- 

 tor vaginae muscle, under which they lie. Its admixture with the male semen has been 

 supposed to have some connection with impregnation ; but no proof whatever has been 

 given that any such admixture is necessary. It seems not improbable, however, that it 

 may serve, like the prostatic fluid of the male, to give a dilution to the seminal fluid that 

 is favorable to its action. These glands were probably known to the ancients, and it is 

 doubtless their secretion which Hippocrates and others describe as the female semen. 

 These glands have been since described by M. Huguier, in the " Archives d' Anatomic" 

 (1847). His description corresponds in every respect with that given above. 



