387 



singular property of dilating and stretching itself, and, at the same time, 

 of gaining in thickness instead of becoming thinner. 



The vagina is remarkable, only by the soft, wrinkled, and easily dila- 

 ted structure of its parietes. The upper extremity of this oblique canal, 

 which is directed upward and backward, embraces the cervix of the ute- 

 rus, while its lower orifice is surrounded by a spongy body, whose cells 

 fill with blood and expel it, like the corpora cavernosa of the penis and 

 clitoris. It is called plexus retiforme ; its turgesccuce, during erection, 

 contracts the orifice of the vagina ; the contraction of the constrictor 

 muscles, which answers the purpose of the accelerator urinae in man, and 

 which lies over this plexus retiforme, surrounds, like it, the entrance of 

 the vagina, and may, in the same manner, contract the orifice of this canal. 



Besides, this external orifice is furnished, in women who have had no 

 connexion with men, with a membranous fold, varying in breadth, gene- 

 rally semicircular, and called hymen. Its existence is considered by 

 many, as the most certain sign of virginity. But all the marks by which 

 it has been attempted to obtain a certainty of the presence of virginity 

 are very equivocal*. The relaxed state of the parts, from a great quan- 

 tity of mucus, in a woman subject to the fluor albus; or from the blood 

 of the menstrual discharge, may make the hymen yield and not rupture, 

 so that a woman might seem a virgin without being such ; while another 

 woman who has not lost her virginity, might, from illness, have her hy- 

 men destroyed. There are, in the last place, persons in whom the hymen 

 is so indistinct, that several anatomists have doubted its existence!. 



The other external parts of generation, which are easily discovered, 

 without the aid of dissection, cannot be considered as merely ornamen- 

 tal ; all are, as will be shown presently, of real utility. The folds of skin 

 which form the labia and the nymphae, yield during the delivery of the 

 fo3tus. These duplicatures not only unfold themselves, but likewise un- 

 dergo a degree of extension, their tissue being moister, softer, and more 

 extensible than that of the skin. The mons veneris, the hairs which 

 cover it, the clitoris, which resembles an imperfect penis, seem merely 

 organs of voluptuousness; but is not pleasure itself an element in the 

 act by which the human species is reproduced}: ? 



CCIII. Of conception. When a chemical, mechanical, or mental irri- 

 tation excites the action of the genital organs, the penis elongates itself, 

 becomes turgid and stiff, from the accumulation of blood within the cells 

 of the corpus cavernosum, and within those of the corpus spongiosumof 

 the urethra. The turgescence of these two parts of the penis should be 

 simultaneous, to render the erection complete. It has been thought that 

 this phenomenon might be accounted for, by the compression of the 

 pudic veins, which are situated between the symphysis pubis and the 

 root of the penis, which, as long as the erection lasts, is compressed 

 against the bone by the erector muscles. But far from elevating the penis, 

 the muscles of the perineum, especially the ischio cavernous (erectores 



* Attamen prima venusdebet^esse cruenta." Hatter. 



j- It nevertheless always exists, but its size is very various. In some females it coi* 

 pletely closes the vagina, and, in this case, it causes retention of the menses. In other 

 cases, the occlusion not being 1 complete, foccundation may take place by menns of a 

 very small opening-, and without the introduction of the penis Copland. 



* See APPENDIX, Note 1 1. 



Penis adest, ita consmctus, ut sthnulo corporeo sive mentali irritatus, turgeat et 

 obrigescat, seque erigat, postea detumescat, et collabatur." Crevt. 



