0 
CONCEPTION. 
vigilant anatomift, toiling through the unalarming and 
chilly organs of the dead, ought to furniffl a more 
rational hypothefis, whence to deduce the aftive princi¬ 
ple and admirable procefs of the human conception. 
Authors have been always eager to eftabliffl the certain¬ 
ty of a considerable afflux of blood to the female organs, 
and confequent turgidity during the voluptuous com¬ 
munication ofthe-foxes; and this has been a wonderful 
prop to many abfurd conje&ures. This afflux, and con- 
lequent turgidity, they fuppofe originates, like the erec¬ 
tion of the penis, from the ftrength of libidinous ideas, 
and other locally irritating caufes; and is intended by 
nature to induce a tenfion in the female organs, that the 
progrefs of the femen may thereby be facilitated. This 
tenfion, again, they fuppofe induces fome kind of con- 
ftri&ioh, which is faid to fupport the aftion of the diffe¬ 
rent parts of the genital fyftem, but particularly of the 
Fallopian tubes. Thefe tubes, it is faid, are remarkably 
diftended, during coition, by the blood ruffling into the 
numerous veffels which creep between their coats, by 
which means they are erefted, and their fimbriated termi¬ 
nations applied to the ovaria; and it is gravely added, 
that riiffettions of gravid women, and the comparative 
anatomy of brutes, corroborate the.opinion. Were it 
not for the ferious refpe£t with which this anatomical ob- 
fervation hath for a length of time been favoured, no 
body furely would be at the pains of detecting the abfur- 
dity. Allowing that this turgidity, with all its concomi¬ 
tant circumftances, really happens in the living fubje£t, 
how can it poffibly exift in a carcafs flaccid with death, 
and, as is always the cafe in a human anatomized body, 
where death mult have taken place fome confiderable time 
before ? See Dr. Hunter’s anatomy of the gravid uterus, 
vol. i. p. 641. 
But this turgidity, though it fometimes may happen, 
and yet in a degree very limited to what is alleged, does 
not always happen; and, when it really does take place, 
it feems rather to be the companion and promoter of li¬ 
bidinous gratification, than a principal and effential pro¬ 
moter of conception. To many women the embraces of 
the male are extremely, if not completely, indifferent; 
and to fome they are abfolutely difagreeable ; yet even 
thefe women are prolific. There is no difficulty in fug- 
gefting a very fufficient and natural reafon why the parts 
of the female, dire£tly fubjefted to the action of the penis, 
during the venereal congrefs, flionld become turgid with 
influent blood, and fometimes be conflri&ed. Nature, 
though file feems in general- unfriendly to exceffive luft,. 
yet fometimes permits it; and thefe are the means fhe 
feems to have appointed for heightening it. Befides, it 
is proper that the animal inftiifot, which prompts the re- 
produftion of the fpecies, fflould not be difappointed in 
its gratification, however brutal thefe feufations and ideas 
may appear to the purified philofopher. Thefe means 
then, however they may contribute to the mutual fenfi- 
bility of the fexes, in the voluptuous gratification of ani¬ 
mal pleafure, appear to have no real influence on the 
procefs of generation, after the venereal congrefs has 
ceafed ; nay, we have reafon to believe, that their aftion 
or influence does not extend beyond the limits of the va¬ 
gina, except in common with the reft of the genital fyf- 
tem, even during that congrefs. If an afflux of blood to 
thefe parts were always to be attended with thefe effects, 
what violence muft the ovaria be expofed to by reiterated 
coition, and by every return of the menftrual difcharge ! 
During the menftrual afflux, a very confiderable diftention 
muft lurely take place over the greateft part, if not the 
whole, of the female genital fyltem; and, as this tur¬ 
gidity is the principal reafon affigned for the aftion of the 
tubes, by what means are the fimbriae diverted from exer- 
eifing thofe functions which turgidity, though from ano¬ 
ther caufe, at another time fo fuccefsfully inftigates ? Alfo 
how happens it that grateful copulation is not always 
productive, and the contrary ? that the fimbriae, in every 
venereal a£t ? do not operate vipon the oyaria ; and there¬ 
by produce more fcetufes, or a wafte of the ova ? and 
that the organs themfelves are not incapacitated, or di- 
miniffled in their energy, by fuch repeated exertions ? 
We have every reafon then to conclude, that the tenfion 
and conftriction of the female organs, induced by the 
afflux of blood during coition, if of confequence, are in¬ 
tended folely to promote animal gratification ; and that 
they have no direct influence on the adtual progrefs of 
the femen through the above-defcribed-communications 
to the ovaria. 
Upon the whole, it certainly appears no way equivocal,, 
that the femen cannot, in any manner, be applied to the 
ovaria by means of the fimbriae ; that it cannot afcend or 
advance through the convolutions of the Fallopian tubes ; 
that it cannot divaricate find traverfe the comprefied ute¬ 
rus; and that it cannot even operate a paffage through 
the rigid bulwark of the cervix uteri. The probability 
of the progrefs of the aura feminalis through the fame 
paths is deltroyed by the fame arguments ; and the whim- 
fical opinions founded on the prefence of animalcules in 
the femen, and on the organic bodies furniffled by the 
femen of both fexes, and uniting in the uterus, as far as 
this alleged aperture is concerned, muft ftand or fall by 
the fame fate. It may feem however ftrange, that a doc¬ 
trine fo ancient, and fo univerfadly believed, ftiould be fo- 
eafily overthrown ; and it may furnifh, to the fpeculative 
reader, unfavourable ideas of the pvefent ftate of medical 
literature. He may indeed wonder, that, though every 
fcience has become rational and refpeftable by the exer¬ 
tions of their cultivators, medicine alone has been able to 
refilt the diligence of a thoufand years; although it has 
been wiefted from the hands of nurfes, and its profefiion 
become dignified and lucrative, it can fcarcely be faid, 
at this day, to afford one unqueftionable idea. In the 
volumes of phyfiology, compiled by the m )ft learned pby- 
ficians, and drawn from the moft learned lources, will 
the unconcerned philofopher find the dogmata of medi¬ 
cine confiftent wholly with nature, or with common fenfe? 
But fince the femen, in fome fliape or other, contains 
that animating principle which is-indifpenfably neceflary 
to generation; and fince the ovaria as indifputably pro¬ 
duce foniething from whence a living creature is to be 
evolved, it becomes demonftrably clear, that the influence 
of the male feed muft be powerfully incorporated with 
the female, and directed to the ovaria, before this effe£t 
can poffibly take place. We have already feen how this 
cannot happen; let us now endeavour to point out a ra¬ 
tional medium by which it may be accompliffled. For 
this purpofe we muft again return to the vagina, or canal 
of the uterus, as being the principal organ on the part of 
the female which aftually contributes to propagation ; 
and without the full and complete ule of which, concep¬ 
tion cannot take place. It therefore demands a very mi¬ 
nute and attentive inveftigation- 
Tlie vagina is elaftic, and fome what membranous, 
compoied of mufcular fibres, blood-veffels, nerves, and 
lymphatics. It commences, from beneath, at the nynr- 
phte, and, rifing obliquely about five inches, is loft upon, 
the uterus. Its capacity is very different in different lub~ 
jeCts, and in no very diftant periods of life in the fame 
fubjeft. A very refpedtable anatomift finifhes his defcrip- 
tion of it by faying, it is “ membra •virili fecundum omncs 
dimenfwnes accommodabilis v” Its inner membrane, though 
very uneven, is delicately fmooth, and, from its nervous 
texture, exquifitely fenfible; the outer membrane is more 
fpongy and mufcular; and, the whole body of the canal 
is very plentifully fupplied with blood-vefiels, nerves, 
and lymphatics. We know little more of the lymphatics 
of thefe parts, than that they are more numerous propor¬ 
tionally than.in any other part of the body. Thofe which 
originate in the exterior parts of the female genital fyf- 
tem, traverfe the inguinal glands, while the deep-feated 
ones take a much more direct couvfe to their place of 
union with the laCteals: a circumftance which leems to 
favour a very powerful abforption fubfifting in the va- 
