108 FEMALE ORGANS OF GENERATION. 



susceptible of distention during sexual excitement. The clitoris 

 is supplied also with blood vessels and nerves like the penis, 

 and is held up to the under part of the syrnphysis pubis by a 

 suspensory ligament. 



The anterior extremity of the body of the clitoris is found in 

 the rima or fissura vulva?, about an inch below the upper com- 

 missure of the labia externa. It projects somewhat, and bears 

 a general resemblance in sjiape with the end of the penis, 

 whence its name of glans clitoridis; but it has not the same or- 

 ganization, excepting the delicacy, the extreme sensibility, and 

 the vascularity of the skin which covers it. The clitoris has no 

 corpus spongiosum, neither is it concerned, like the penis, in 

 conveying the urine from the bladder. Its glans is covered by 

 a doubling of skin called the prepuce, and is likewise furnished 

 with the glandula? Tysoni, from which is discharged a smegna, 

 or sebaceous fluid, as in the male. The prepuce does not fur- 

 nish a regular well defined fraenum. 



The Erector Clitoridis muscle corresponds with the erector 

 penis. It arises from the ascending ramus of the ischium, and, 

 covering the inferior face of the crus clitoridis, runs as far for- 

 wards as the commencement of the body. 



The Labia Interna, or Nymphae, are two duplicatures of the 

 mucous membrane of the vulva, which pass down, one on each 

 side, from the clitoris. The prepuce of the latter terminates, 

 on either side, in the labia; while the latter are continued up- 

 wards, by a narrow process, to the under surface of the glans 

 clitoridis. They arise all along their base, from the internal sides 

 of the labia externa, or majora; and being wider in the middle 

 than elsewhere, they terminate insensibly about half-way down 

 the orifice of the vagina. Between the Iamina3 of each one is 

 placed a vascular cellular substance, susceptible of distention 

 and of partial erection during sexual excitement. In young 

 subjects, their vascularity communicates a vermilion tinge, 

 which is lost and becomes brownish in the progress of life. 

 As they are effaced during parturition, their chief use seems to 

 be as a provision for the great distention of the vulva, which 

 then occurs. 



The labia interna are about half an inch broad in the natural 

 state, and do not project obviously beyond the labia externa. 



