OF THE SEXUAL ORGANS. 55 



contract, and give rise to one or more tubercles, known by the name 

 of myrtiform caruncles. 



§. VIII. Of the jHyrtiform or Vaginal Carun- 

 cles. 



144. There are still a great many physiologists who think that the 

 myrtiform caruncles are special organs, and independent of the hy- 

 men; they found their opinion on the circumstance that they are 

 sometimes found even where the hymen is whole, and that their 

 number and situation do not appear to be accounted for on any other 

 hypothesis. The opposite opinion tends, it is true, to predominate; 

 but as its supporters have not refuted their antagonists so convin- 

 cingly as to dissipate all doubts on the subject, I have sought for the 

 cause of such a discrepancy of sentiment, and believe I have disco- 

 vered it. Of the four caruncles commonly observed at the entrance 

 of the vulvo-uteriue canal, and which correspond to the four extre- 

 mities of the vertical and transverse diameters of this opening, two, 

 namely, that which is near the meatus urinarius, and that which is 

 near the fourchette, belong to the middle columns of the vagina, 

 while the other two only are the remains of the hymen. The for- 

 mer, therefore, exist even in virgins, while the latter ought only to 

 be met with after coition. It is clear, moreover, that these latter, or 

 the lateral caruncles, may vary in number, size and situation, accord- 

 ingly as the hymen is broken into two, three, or four shreds, of 

 equal or unequal sizes, in this or that direction, and according as 

 the hymen itself was of greater or less thickness and breadth; these 

 latter caruncles are altered in form, and sometimes disappear entirely 

 in consequence of labor, while, on the other hand, the median car- 

 uncles enlarge, rather than diminish with the progress of age. 



§. IX. Perineum, Fo§sa JVavicularis, Four- 

 chette, Froenum, Commissure. 



145. Between the perineal commissure of the vulva, or greater 

 labia, and the convex edge of the hymen, or posterior semi-circum- 

 ference of the outer orifice of the vagina, is seen the fossa navicu- 

 laris; the fourchette or the frcenum forms its anterior edge, and 

 ought not to be confounded with its posterior edge, which is the 

 commissure itself. It most commonly happens that the fourchette 

 is torn in a first labor, and the fossa navicularis is thereby forever 

 destroyed. 



146. The perineum, which separates the vulva from the anus, is 

 scarcely an inch, or an inch and a half in length; its inferior surface 

 is composed of skin; it happens, but rarely, that it is covered with 



