386 



passage of the seminal fluid, by rendering the internal surface of the 

 urethra more slippery. The use of the urethra is, not only to convey 

 the semen out of the body, but likewise to serve in the excretion of the 

 urine, and to form a part of the penis. The latter destined to convey 

 the prolific fluid into the female organs of generation, must be in a state 

 of erection to perform this function completely. Erection being a phe- 

 nomenon of structure, that of the penis will be considered, after the de- 

 scription of the female organs of generation*. 



CCII. Of the female organs of generation. I shall not adopt the ana- 

 tomical arrangement generally followed in this description, but classing 

 in three divisions, the different parts which, in women^re subservient to 

 the genital function, I shall speak first of the ovaria and fallopian tubes, 

 then of the uterus, and in the last place of the vagina and external parts. 



The ovaria, situated in the female pelvis, connected to the uterus by a 

 ligament, receive the vessels and nerves which, in women, are sent to the 

 testicles ; they resemble in form the latter, but are somewhat smaller. 

 Do the ovaria secrete a fluid, which, by mixing with the male semen, 

 produces the new being, or is there detached from them, at the moment 

 of conception, an ovum which the semen vivifies? Whatever opinion 

 is adopted, one is compelled to admit, that the ovaria prepare a substance 

 essential to generation, since females, in whom these parts have been ex- 

 tirpated, are rendered barren. 



It is likewise, unquestionably along these membranous tubes, called 

 fallopian, that this substance, whatever it may be, furnished by the ovaria, 

 passes into the uterus, into which one of their extremities opens : while 

 the other extremity, broad and fringed, lies loose in the cavity of the pel- 

 vis, supported by a small duplicature of the peritoneum, but undergoes 

 a state of erection, and applies itself to the ovarium, during the act of 

 coition, and forms a continuous canal between that organ and the cavity 

 of the uterus. The external orifice of the fallopian tube, called corpus 

 fimbriatum, has been found grasping thus the ovarium, in females opened 

 immediately after coition. It may happen, from a malformation of the 

 parts, that the fallopian tube may not be able to apply itself to the ova- 

 rium. I dissected at the Hospital de la Charite, the body of a woman 

 who had been barren ; and found the corpora fimbriata, or the expanded 

 termination of the fallopian tubes, adhering to the lateral parieties of the 

 pelvis, so that it was impossible they should perform the motions re- 

 quired for impregnation. 



The uterus, lying in the pelvis, between the rectum and the bladder, is 

 a hollow viscus, in which the foetus grows till the period of birth. Its 

 internal part has been found separated into two cavities, opening, in some 

 cases, in the same vagina, and at others, terminating in a vagina that 

 was double, only in the immediate vicinity of the uterus. Valisnieri 

 mentions the case of a woman who had a double uterus, the one opening 

 in the vagina, and the other communicating with the rectum. Though 

 the muscularity of the pareties of the uterus becomes manifest, in pro- 

 portion as this organ enlarges, during the progress of pregnancy, this 

 hollow muscle may be said to differ from other muscular organs, by the 

 arrangement of its fibres, which it is difficult to discover while its cavity 

 Is empty, and which it is even impossible completely to unravel, while it 

 contains the foetus ; its most remarkable distinguishing character, is its 



See APPENDIX, Note 1 1. 



