Aegina

“ A well-grown and abundant supply of fine pubic hair is a possession highly prized by women, of which they are justly proud, though few of them would acknowledge the fact, even to themselves. None the less it is a fact.
The female sex organs, speaking generally also, are as follows: The vulva, or outward portion of the parts; the vaginal passage; the uterus, or womb, and the ovaries. All but the first named lie within the body of the woman. The vulva is made up of several parts which will be named and described later. The vaginal passage is a tube, or canal leading from the vulva to the womb. ”

“ Female Reproductive Organs.—The ovaries of the Hirudinea appear to differ from those of the Oligochaeta in that the ovaries are continuous with their ducts. In Hirudo, however, the real ovary of each side consists of masses of germinal tissue lying freely within a sac which communicates with a duct; the two ducts unite to form a much convoluted tube which opens into a thick-walled vagina, itself opening again on to the exterior by a median unpaired opening on the seventh segment. The muscular vagina is not always present. ”

“ More time indeed than the average husband dreams of spending upon it. Yet woman has at the surface a small vestigial organ called the clitoris, which corresponds morphologically to the man's penis, and which, like it, is extremely sensitive to touch-sensations. This little crest, which lies anteriorly between the inner lips round the vagina, erects itself when the woman is really tumescent, and by the stimulation of movement it is intensely roused and transmits this stimulus to every nerve in her body. ”

“ The hymen may be occasionally imperforate and require incision. Cysts and painful carunculae may occur on the clitoris. Any part of the vulva may be the seat of new growths, simple or malignant.
Diseases of the Vagina.— (1) Malformations. The vagina may be absent in whole or in part or may present a septum. Stenosis of the vagina may be a barrier to menstruation. (2) Displacements of the vagina; (a) cystocele, which is a hernia of the bladder into the vagina; (b) rectocele, a hernia of the rectum into the vagina. The cause of these conditions is relaxation of the tissues due to parturition. ”

“ If the vulva and vagina were situated between a woman's shoulder blades, and a man had a separate instrument for coitus, not used for any excretory purpose, I do not think women would feel about intercourse as they sometimes do. Again, in their ignorance of anatomy, women often look upon the vagina and womb as part of the bowel and its exit of discharge, and sometimes say, for instance, 'inflammation of the bowel', when they mean womb. Again, many, perhaps most, women believe that they pass water through the vagina, and are ignorant of the existence of the separate urethral orifice. ”

“ Roth has revived the old view that one ovary provides the germs for the male offspring, the other those for the female offspring. He believes further that in the process of cohabitation the mechanical impressions and stimuli received by one-half of the external genital organs, reinforced by contact with and pulling on the pubic hair, are transmitted through the pudic nerve and the hypogastric plexus to the corresponding half of the vagina and the uterus, to the Fallopian tube of that side and to the corresponding ovary. ”

“ But if they adhere to the fundus uteri we must introduce the hand in like manner, and grasp them and pull them along, not straight down for fear of prolapsus, nor with great violence, but they are to be moved gently, at first from this side to that, and afterwards somewhat more strongly, for thus they will yield and be freed from their adhesion. If the mouth of the uterus be found shut we must have recourse to the same treatment. If the strength is not sunk, sternutatories and fumigations with aromatics in a pot may be used ”

“ If the vulva is pricked with a needle, the woman draws herself away; there is no reflex muscular action, closing the vagina and drawing up the anus. The muscles of the perineum have been destroyed.
If the finger is introduced in the vagina and pressed backward and outward in either vaginal sulcus, the tissues are yielding and soft; no supporting sling of muscle and fascia is felt. ”

“ Another seat of voluptuousness in the woman is located in the cervix of the uterus.
The mons Veneris has no special physiological function to perform, but it as well as the vulva serve as strong points of attraction for the male sex. While the entire female body is attractive to the male, and vice versa, there are certain zones which are especially attractive or exciting. Such zones or areas are called erogenous zones—the word erogenous means love-generating. The vulva and the mons Veneris are the strongest erogenous zones; other erogenous zones are the lips, the breasts, etc. ”

“ She has a good appetite, sleeps well, and in no particular shows any sign of ill health. The uterine examination reveals a short vagina, and a small, round cervix uteri, rather less in size than the average, and projecting very slightly into the vaginal canal. Depth of uterus from os to fundus, two and a quarter inches, is very nearly normal. No external sign of abnormal ovaries. She is a well-developed, healthy young woman, performing all her physiological functions naturally and regularly, except the single function of menstruation. ”

“ The female organs open into the rectum, as in the bird. The vagina is 11⁄2 inches long: its internal membrane is rugous, the rugae being in a longitudinal direction. At the end of the vagina, instead of an os tincae, as in other quadrupeds, is the meatus urinarius; on each side of which is an opening leading into a cavity, resembling the horn of the uterus in the quadruped, only thinner in its coats. ”

“ General Feeling: I feel like a woman in a man’s form; and even though I often am sensible of the man’s form, yet it is always in a feminine sense. Thus, for example, I feel the penis as clitoris; the urethra as urethra and vaginal orifice, which always feels a little wet, even when it is actually dry; the scrotum as labia majora; in short, I always feel the vulva. And all that that means one alone can know who feels or has felt so. But the skin all over my body feels feminine ”

“ When, however, the ovary is completely prolapsed, lying in the bottom of Douglas’s pouch, between the posterior wall of the vagina and the rectum, well-marked symptoms usually arise.
The woman suffers pain whenever she is in the erect position. The pain is increased by walking, probably because the ovary is squeezed between the cervix and the sacrum. Coitus sometimes causes intense pain. Defecation causes pain. The pain begins with the movements of the bowels, and often lasts for one or two hours afterward. ”

“ The anus is a deeply pigmented, puckered opening situated an inch and a half or two inches behind the vagina. It is guarded by two bands of strong circular muscles, the internal and external sphincter ani. The skin covering the surface of the body extends upward into the anus where it becomes highly vascular and merges into the mucous lining of the rectum. Pressure exerted during pregnancy by the enlarged uterus is felt in both the rectum and bladder, frequently causing a good deal of discomfort and almost painful desire to evacuate their contents. ”

“ Patient presents nothing remarkable in external appearance. She is gracefully formed, but the muscular system is not strongly developed. Pelvis is, in all respects, that of a female, but the arms and legs are decidedly large and of masculine form. Ladies’ shoes do not fit her, but, being opposed to exciting attention, she forces her feet into female shoes, and they are, therefore, much deformed. Genitals normally developed, and present no other abnormality than descent of the uterus, with hypertrophy of the vaginal portion. ”

“ I have had patients who did not know that they possessed a clitoris, others who made no distinction between their urethra and their vagina; some have not known of the existence of the uterus as a separate organ, and some, in confusion about their uniquely feminine secretions, have believed that women can have a seminal ejaculation as men do. ”

“ Nature provides these chemical secretions from the Ovaries for the purpose of giving the woman her characteristic physical form and contour, her form, her breasts, her long hair, her broad pelvis, her soft voice, and other secondary sex characteristics; and also of providing for the normal development of the other sex organs. As a proof of this statement, science shows us that if a woman's ovaries are completely removed there is usually a consequent atrophy or "drying up" of the Uterus and the Vagina, and often even of the Vulva. ”

“ The conical penis finds its way in the reflected fold of the vagina, while the point of the uterus may be two or three inches in some other direction, making impregnation wholly impossible; besides, in the normal-shaped penis, the corona acting as a valve, behind which the circular muscular fibres of the vagina close themselves, tends to retain the seminal fluid in front, while the very shape of the organ assists in straightening out the vaginal canal and to bring the uterus in proper position. ”

“ The ovary, the sex gland of the female, is a small, tough ductless gland, about an inch long and three-quarters of an inch wide, or about the size and shape of an almond. It is greyish pink in color and presents a more or less irregular, dimpled surface. An ovary is suspended on either side of the uterus, in the posterior fold of the broad ligament, by which it is partly covered. Its outer end is usually attached to the longest of the fimbriated extremities of the Fallopian tube, the fimbria ovarica, which has the form of a shallow gutter, or groove. ”

“ The vagina may also be partially occupied, and coitus may be impeded, by elongation of the hypertrophied cervix uteri, by inversion or prolapse of the uterus, by cystocele or rectocele, and by uterine polypi. Horwitz records the case of a woman aged twenty-two years in whom impotentia coeundi was dependent upon the occlusion of the vaginal orifice by a rounded, strongly projecting body, which proved on closer examination to be a hypertrophied vaginal bulb. ”

“ The female genitals occupy the same relative situation in the pelvis as the male, but they are an antithesis to each other. The male are constructed to deposite, and the female to receive; consequently, in the female there is a conduit or passage, in place of the male penis, termed the vagina, leading to the womb—the receptacle for the impregnating fluid. The vagina is placed between the bladder and rectum. ”

“ The body (i) of the uterus is a tube about four centimeters long which lies in the abdominal cavity, ventrad of the rectum and between it and the bladder. Its caudal end is at the level of the cranial border of the pubis. The cranial end of its cavity is divided by a median dorsoventral partition into lateral halves, while the cavity of its caudal portion is unpaired. The mucosa is thrown up into large longitudinal folds. At its caudal end the uterus projects into the vagina (m) , so that when the vagina is opened the end of the uterus is seen projecting into it as a prominent papilla. ”

“ Verdile records an instance of imperforate vagina in which rectovaginal wall was divided and the delivery effected through the rectum and anus. Lombard mentions an observation of complete occlusion of the vagina in a woman, the mother of 4 living children and pregnant for the fifth time. Thus, almost incredible to relate, it is possible for a woman to become a mother of a living child and yet preserve all the vaginal evidences of virginity. Cole describes a woman of twenty-four who was delivered without the rupture of the hymen, and Meek remarks on a similar case. ”

“ The uterus, situated behind the ovary, extends throughout the posterior end, not confined to the central field, but overlapping the lateral fields with its transverse coils; at the posterior edge of the body it turns back again and winds forwards to the ovary in transverse loops, then between the testes, and finally, dorsal to the ventral sucker, terminates in the genital pore. The thick-shelled eggs when young are yellowish, when older dark brown. ”

“ The vagina is wide and flabby, the walls are lacking elasticity. The portio vaginalis uteri is flabby and pointed. The uterine walls are weak and soft, and the cavity is wide. The uterus is extremely movable and generally lies in retropositio, the relaxation of the uterine ligaments allowing it to fall downward and backward. The patient’s general health is often poor, she is anemic, nervous and weak. Sometimes there is only hypoplasia of some of the genital organs, otherwise the woman enjoys good health. ”

“ The internal organs of generation consist in the female of the Vagina, the Uterus, the Ovaries and their appendages.
The Vagina is a membranous canal commencing at the hymen and extending to the uterus. It is a little curved, and extends backward and upward between the bladder, which lies before and above it, and that extreme portion of the bowels called the rectum, which lies behind it. The coat of membrane which lines the internal surface of the vagina forms a number of transverse ridges. ”

“ In men, as well as in women, erection and orgasm, or even ejaculation, may be induced by irritation of various other regions of the skin and mucous membrane. These “erogenous” zones in woman are, while she is a virgin, the clitoris, and, after defloration, the vagina and cervix uteri. ”