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CHAPTER X. 



OF GENERATION. 



CXCVIII. Difference of the sexes. The functions treated of in this 

 chapter are not necessary to the life of the individual, but, without them, 

 the human species would soon perish, for want of the power of reproduc- 

 tion : these functions, destined to preserve the species, are entrusted to 

 two kinds of organs, belonging to the two sexes, of which they constitute 

 the principal, though not the only difference. 



Woman, in fact, does not differ from man, in her genital organs mere- 

 ly, but, likewise, in her lower stature, in the delicacy of her organization, 

 in the predominance of the lymphatic and cellular systems, which softens 

 down the projections of the muscles, and gives to all her limbs those 

 rounded and graceful forms, of which we see, in the Venus of Medicis, 

 the inimitable model. In woman, sensibility is also more exquisite; 

 and with less strength, her mobility is greater. The female skeleton 

 even is easily distinguished from that of the male, by striking differences. 

 The asperities of the bones are less prominent ; the clavicle is less curv- 

 ed, the chest shorter, but more expanded, the sternum shorter, but wider; 

 the pelvis more capacious, the thigh bones more oblique*, Sec. In a dis- 

 sertation on physical beauty, read by Camper to the Academy of Design, 

 at Amsterdam, this celebrated physiologist showed, that, in tracing the 

 forms of the male and female body within two elliptical areas, of equal 

 size in both, the female pelvis would extend beyond the ellipsis, and the 

 shoulders be within^ while in man, the shoulders would reach beyond 

 their ellipsis, and the pelvis be contained within its limits. 



The general characters of the sexes are so marked, that it would be 

 possible to distinguish a male, merely by seeing a part of his body naked, 

 even though this part should not be covered with hairs, and should have 

 none of the principal attributes of virility. Should this difference of or- 

 ganization and character be abscribed to influence of the sexual organs 

 upon the rest of the body ? Does the uterus impress on the sex all its 

 characteristic modifications, and is it just to say with Vanhelmont : Profi- 

 ler solum uterum mulier est^ id quod est ; the uterus alone makes woman 

 what she is. Though this viscus, very evidently, re-acts on the whole 

 system of the female, and seems to draw under its controul nearly the 

 whole of the actions and affections of woman, I am, nevertheless, of opi- 

 nion, that it is far from being the only cause of her distinguishing cha- 

 racteristics, since these may be recognized from the earliest period of 

 life, when the uterine system is far from having attained its full activity. 

 A very singular fact, recorded by Professor Cailliot, in the second volume 

 of the Memoirs of the Medical Society of Paris, proves better than all 



* Compare the beautiful plates of the male and female skeleton by Albinus anc! 

 Soemmering, ' 



