FECUNDATION. 495 



glands are interesting in a pathological point of view ; here 

 is the seat in woman of an inflammation analogous to gonor- 

 rhea in man : in these cases there is never vaginitis : gonor- 

 rhoea in woman should be translated Bartholinitis. 



The vagina is essentially the organ of copulation : its ridges 

 and transverse rugae excite to the highest state the sensi- 

 bility of the glans and induce the reflex phenomenon of ejacu- 

 lation : in the vagina are let loose the spermatozoids. The 

 condition of its mucous surface influences the vitality of these 

 fertilizing elements: an acid secretion is fatal to these vibratile 

 filaments ; whilst an alkaline mucus, like the ordinary product 

 of the pavement epithelium of the neck of the womb, is emi- 

 nently favorable to the vitality and movements of the sper- 

 matozoids (see p. 567). 



It is not necessary that the voluptuous sensations which 

 in man accompany the ejaculation of sperm during coitus 

 should exist in women for the induction of fecundation ; the 

 sole conditions, fulfilled by the external organs of generation 

 in the woman, is to allow the introduction of seminal fluid 

 into the vagina and to hold it there. The hymen, which 

 always presents a perforation of variable form (semi-lunar, 

 horse-shoe, annular, or bilabial hymen), opposes no obstacle 

 to this introduction, and ordinarily the hymeneal membrane 

 is broken at the first contact; but oftentimes this membrane 

 presents a very defined sensibility, which, set in action by the 

 slightest touch, induces by reflex action an energetic contrac- 

 tion of the vaginal sphincter, a contraction which is accom- 

 panied by violent pain, and opposes an obstacle to coitus. 



This curious, in its physiological aspect, phenomenon has 

 been examined by Mar. Sims (of New York), under the name 

 of vaginismus f ' quite reasonably, Sims compares vaginismus 

 with blepharismus (nictation), or spasmodic and painful con- 

 traction of the orbicular muscle of the eyelids, accompanied 

 with an extreme sensibility to light, or photophobia. This 

 surgeon has, moreover, demonstrated that vaginismus cannot 

 be abolished nor modified by forcible or gradual dilatation, 

 so long as it is concerned with the origin of the reflex irrita- 

 tion, that is, with the hymen or its remains (carunculae myr- 

 titbrmes) ; but that excision and cauterization of these sensi- 

 tive membranes (especially on their external surface) cause 

 an immediate disappearance of these spasmodic contractions, 

 which were the cause of the hyperaesthesia. 



On account of the fact, that the aperture of the ineatus 

 urinarius of the glans during erection has a vertical, and that 



