9 
C O N C E 
propenfity to, the-gratifications of love. Do not thefe 
things thow, and a thqufand other circumfkances might 
be adduced to ftrengthen the proof, that the mind ac¬ 
quires its powers only as the parts of the body are un¬ 
folded and confirmed ; that the body is perfected only as 
the mind is qualified to receive its impreffions; and that 
the parts of the body are perfected by one another ? 
During infancy and youth, ftriClly, the ovaria are fim- 
ple inorganic maffes, partaking of no more.life than is 
barely fufficient to fuftain them, and connect them with 
that energy and progrefs of conftitution which are after¬ 
wards to unfold all their properties. At the period of 
puberty, thus denominated from the change which takes 
place in the genital fyltem at that time of life, this pro¬ 
grefs and developement of the ovaria is finifhed by nature; 
and thefe bodies are generated, and' completed within 
them, which will exit! without impregnation by the 
male, hut which this impregnation alone can finally ma¬ 
turate and evolve. That thefe bodies are not generated at 
an earlier date, anatomy as well as reafon, founded on 
the foregoing arguments, afl'ure us ; and, that the ova of 
all the fcetufes, which the female is afterwards to pro¬ 
duce, are generated at that time, feems equally certain. 
Though this change in the ovaria is the molt effenjia], 
the whole genital fyftem alfo undergoes a very material, 
change. The fimple alterations of It raft u re and dimen- 
fions in the different parts of this' fyltem, though they 
are neceflary and fubfervient to generation and parturi¬ 
tion, yet they are not fo material, either in themfelves or 
to our purpole, as to require a minute defeription. This, 
however, is not the cafe with rtfpeft to the menfes. It 
is chiefly with a view to the nutrition of the foetus that 
this extra-fanguification in the female is provided by na¬ 
ture ; which is determined to the genital fyltem in the 
fame manner as the other fluids are determined to other 
outlets; but, as the continued drilling off of this extra 
fluid would be exceedingly inconvenient and di'fgufting, 
nature has prepared, as it were, a ciftern for its reception. 
What may be fufficient to bring on the haemorrhage, how¬ 
ever, is only accumulated ; and the general redundancy, 
induced by the obltruCtion and accumulation, fubfides 
gradually as the haemorrhage goes on. This is the man¬ 
ner of menllruation in the unimpregnated female, and 
thefe are the reafons why it affumes a periodical form. 
In the impregnated female again, the preparation of this 
extra blood ffill continues, but its confumption becomes 
very different. By the extenfion of the uterus, and by 
the wafte occalionea by the nourilhment of the foetus and 
its involucra, the furcharge or extra preparation of blood 
is nearly balanced, or is taken up as it is prepared; and 
hence the periodical efforts are almoft loft. In the firft 
months of pregnancy, however, the uterine fyftem is not 
always able to confume the furcharge of blood, and there¬ 
by take off the periodical effort; and hence it is that the 
l.ofs of the feetus happens molt generally in the early 
months, and at the ufual period of the menfes, unlels 
fome accident has fuperveried. And it is nearly from the 
fame reafons that mifearriage is fo often to be apprehend¬ 
ed in the latter months of pregnancy, and that the foetus 
is afterwards expelled from the womb. When the feetus 
has acquired all that bulk and ftrength which the capa¬ 
city and powers of the uterus can confer, and when a 
change of circulation and mode of life becomes neceflary 
to it, the uterus and feetus become plethoric ; a general 
accumulation fucceeds; and the periodical efforts of the 
menfes return. During the middle months of pregnancy 
the feetus is in a ftate of rapid growth, and is capable of 
confumihg all the blood which the mother can furnifh; 
but there is neither room nor wafte, in the latter months, 
for the blood which the mother is conftantiy pouring in ; 
and hence avifes that plethora, both in mother and child, 
which is to mitigate the eifort to parturition, which occa- 
ffons the effufion after parturition, and which is to fupply 
the extended circulation of the born child. 
But befides the utility of menftrnation to 1 the- feetus, 
Vol. V. No. 24.9, 
PTIO N. 
there is a very evident connection between it and impreg¬ 
nation. To fpeak of it as a proof of the ripened quali¬ 
fications of the female, is to lay nothing; its immediate 
a£tion is effential to conception. In the human female, 
it is well known, that coition is almoft only fuccefslul 
immediately after this'evacuation has fublided. Who will 
reconcile this, and it is no modern and groundlefs obfer- 
vation, to the confequence which has been itfcnbed to 
turgidity and tenfion, which we have already adverted to ? 
Almoft every woman who has frequently undergone preg¬ 
nancy, and who has attended judicioufly to the pheno¬ 
mena of that fituation, calculates from the laft ceflstion 
of the menfes. At this time, or rather very foonfilter, 
the plethoric tumult of the genital J'yftem is completely 
fublided, and the abforbed letnen gets quiet and unanti¬ 
cipated poffeffion of the circulating blood ; and at the 
fame time the gradually-returning plethora promotes its 
aCtion, and perhaps its determination to the ovaria. When 
the menfes are interrupted, or profufe and frequent, con¬ 
ception feldom takes place; and it admits not of a doubt, 
that when the determination of this blood is towards the 
mammae, in the form of milk, coition is unfuccefsful; 
and as foon as its determination to the uterine fyftem is 
reftored, other things being favourable, copulation fuc¬ 
ceeds. We may add as a known faCt, that continuing to 
give fuck after the ufual period, will occupy the plethora, 
and prevent its determination, in the form of blood, to 
the uterine fyftem. It is an additional reproach to the 
groffnefs of human nature, that this praCtice hath too of¬ 
ten been put in execution, in order to obviate conception. 
But we have faid enough to deferibe and fubftantiate 
tliofe parts of the female, which puberty has prepared 
for generation. We fhall now confider its operation on, 
the male. It need not be repeated, that the feminal fluid 
is an exceedingly penetrating and aCtive fluid. Its efteCls, 
after it is generated, even upon the male, demoriftrate its 
aClivity and influence, far beyond the precinfts wherein 
we believe it to be accumulated. After puberty, the fe- 
cretion of it, during even indifferent health, is continu¬ 
ally going on ; and thofe collections of it in its refer- 
voirs, which are not thrown out by venereal exercile, or 
by other means lefs decent, are reforbed and mingled 
with the general mafs. What is aChially reforbed about 
the period of puberty, before the fyftem has been habi^ 
tuated to it, or faturated with it, produces very curious 
and remarkable effects over the whole body. The flefh 
and (kin, from being tender, delicate, and irritable, be¬ 
come coarfe and firm ; the body in general lofes its fuc- 
culency ; and a new exiftence feems to take place. The 
voice, a proof of the tenfion and rigidity of the mutcu- 
lar fibre, lofing its tendernefs and inequalities, becomes 
ungratefully barfli; and the mind itfelf, aCtuated by the 
progrefs of the body, and forgetting all its former incli¬ 
nations and attachments, acquires diltinCliy new propen- 
fities and paflions. The changes’are not entirely the ef- 
feCt of ordinarily progreflive age and ftrength ; neither 
are they promoted by intercourle with the world ; forcaf- 
tration wiil anticipate them, and premature venery, or 
even gradual familiarity and early onanifm, will diminifh 
them. Boys, who have been fubjeCted to callration, ne¬ 
ver acquire either that ftrength of body or capacity of 
mind which dignifies the complete male; and the lame 
cruel and unnatural operation performed on brute ani¬ 
mals dimiiiiflies their bodily ftrength, their courage, and 
the fiercenefs of their temper. 
If fuch are the effeCls of the feminal fluid when re¬ 
forbed by the male, how powerful rnuft it be when fud- 
denly mingled, and mod probably in greater quantity, 
with the circulating fluids of the attracting female ! 
Coition, or rather the abforption of the feminal fluid of 
the male by the female, even when not lucceeded by 
conception, induces an alteration very general over the 
female fyltem: the local influence of which may be in¬ 
ferred from the general change which it is capable or in¬ 
ducing during complete health ; from the relief which it 
D effeftuates 
