LECTURE VII. 313 



ologist. A monthly discharge takes place 

 from the uterine cavity ; it is of a nutritive 

 quality, resembling blood, and from its 

 quantity, languor and weakness is induced 

 whenever it occurs. Why Nature should 

 have doomed the human female to the 

 periodical loss of so much nutriment and 

 proportionate power, is a problem that can 

 only, in my opinion, be solved by supposing 

 that it relieves uterine irritation, and miti- 

 gates the extreme of sexual desire ; thus 

 enabling her to conform to the laws of mo- 

 rality, and the social compacts that are es- 

 tablished between us. 



That Mr. Hunter viewed the whole of 

 this subject in the light I have endeavoured 

 to represent it, seems manifest from the 

 arrangement he has adopted ; for he has 

 exhibitted all the varieties of the sexual 

 organs, first in vegetables and afterwards in 

 animals. He has also shown the females 

 as they are found before and after impreg- 

 nation. His mind, however, seems to 

 have been greatly excited by the diversity 

 of means which Nature has contrived to 



