56 OF THE SEXUAL ORGANS. 



hairs, which, if they be cut off, produce, while growing again, the 

 effect of a brush, and sometimes occasion intolerable pain, the 

 cause of which it is well to understand. Above, that is, between 

 the skin and the point where the rectum and vagina come into im- 

 mediate contact, there is a triangular space filled with fleshy fibres, 

 cellular tissue, fat, nerves and vessels, and which, constituting a part 

 of the perineum, allow it to elongate itself very considerably during 

 labor; to such a degree, indeed, as will be seen in the sequel, that 

 from being only an inch long, as in its natural state, it may be ex- 

 tended even to four or five inches in length, when most strongly 

 pressed upon by the head. 



147. "Without repeating on this occasion what I have elsewhere 

 said, of the arrangement of the parts that compose the female peri- 

 neum, I think it may be, nevertheless, useful to recall to mind the 

 mean dimensions, which, after a great number of observations, I have 

 been enabled to establish in relation to the various objects which I 

 have now examined. 



It is found: 



1. That from the upper part of the pubis to the clitoris is two 

 inches and a half. 



2. From the anterior commissure of the vulva to the anus, three 

 inches and a half. 



3. From the clitoris to the posterior commissure of the vulva, one 

 inch and a half. 



4. From the posterior commissure of the vulva to the point of the 

 coccyx, three inches. 



5. From the coccyx to the anus, about eighteen lines. 



6. From the anus to the vulva, fifteen lines, allowing only a few 

 lines besides for the orifice of the rectum. 



It is also useful to know that the constrictor vaginze muscle, 

 which is analogous to the accelerator urinae of the male, is inclosed 

 within the body of the greater labia, and that it is so strong in some 

 individuals, as to contract with energy during coition, and consider- 

 ably lessen the size of the orifice of the vagina; that the only im- 

 portant artery in the neighborhood of these parts, the pudic artery, 

 is confined as it were entirely towards the circumference of the 

 perineal s,trait, and consequently, that it is not on account of he- 

 morrhage that lacerations of this region are likely to prove dan- 

 gerous. 



§. X. Dill^rence betireeii the External Or- 

 gans of* Generation of* Women, and those of 

 Brutes. 



