O F P U B E R T Y. 429 



feems to be another caufe which has never ex- 

 cited attention. 



From my experiments^ related in the fixth 

 chapter, it appears that the tefticles of females 

 give birth to a kind of natural protuberances, 

 which 1 have called glandulous bodies. They 

 grow in a gradual manner, and ferve for fecre- 

 ting and maturating the feminal fluid. They 

 are in a continual fluduating ftate. They be- 

 gin to grow under the membrane of the tefticle, 

 which they foon perforate ; they then fwell, 

 and their extremities fpontaneoiifly open, and 

 diftill a feminal fluid for fome time ; after which 

 they gradually decay, leaving only a fmall red- 

 difh cicatrice on the place from wh^ice they 

 fprung. Thefe glandulous bodies no fooner diU 

 appear than they are replaced by others ; fo that 

 the tefticles are continually labouring, and un- 

 dergoing confiderable changes. Hence any de- 

 rangement in thefe organs, either by an unufual 

 thicknefs of the fluid, or weaknefs of the veflx'ls, 

 I^revents the proper exeicile of their fundions, 

 renders them unable to fecrete, or rather vitiates 

 and corrupts the feminal fluid, which neceflarily 

 gives rife to fterility. 



Conception fometimes precedes puberty. Many 

 women have become mothers before the appear- 

 ance of the mcnfes ; and fome who never liad 

 any lymptoms of this evacuation, are in the 

 habit of bearing children. Inftances of tliis 

 kind happen in our climate, without travelling 



for 



