Hyginus

“ It was long the opinion that the semen was ejected into the uterus in the act of coition, and that it afterward, by some unknown means, found its way into and along the Fallopian tubes to the ovary. But there are several facts which weigh heavily against this opinion, and some that entirely forbid it. In the first place, there are several well attested instances in which impregnation took place while the hymen remained entire, where the vagina terminated in the rectum, where it was so contracted by a cicatrix as not to admit the penis. ”

“ The sexual protuberance or phallus is the chief organ of the sexual sense (Chapter 2.25) ; the sexual nerves spread on it, and these are the principal organs of the specific sexual sensation. As erectile bodies (corpora cavernosa) are developed in the male phallus by peculiar modifications of the blood-vessels, it becomes capable of erecting periodically on a strong accession of blood, becoming stiff, so as to penetrate into the female vagina and thus effect copulation. In the male the phallus becomes the penis; in the female it becomes the much smaller clitoris ”

“ When it does occur in this sex, its position, investments, and course through the inguinal canal, where it accompanies the round ligament of the uterus, are the same as in the male. When the hernia escapes through the external abdominal ring of the female groin, it is found to lodge in the labium pudendi. In the male body, the testicle and spermatic cord, which have carried before them investments derived from all the layers of the inguinal region, have, as it were, already marked out the track to be followed by the hernia, and prepared for it its several coverings. ”

“ The different varieties of the hymen will be left to the works on obstetrics. As has already been observed, labor is frequently seriously complicated by a persistent and tough hymen.
Deficient vulva may be caused by the persistence of a thick hymen, by congenital occlusion, or by absolute absence in vulvar structure. Bartholinus, Borellus, Ephemerides, Julius, Vallisneri, and Baux are among the older writers who mention this anomaly, but as it is generally associated with congenital occlusion, or complete absence of the vagina, the two will be considered together. ”

“ When the hyoid bone is fixed by its depressors (and perhaps in some degree retracted by the joint actions of the posterior belly of the digastric and of the omo-hyoid) , the anterior belly, both passively as a reflected cord, and actively, in virtue of its muscular fibres, depresses the lower jaw and opens the mouth. Simultaneously, too, with its act of raising the pharynx, this muscle must tighten, by its posterior belly, the mesial aponeurotic expansion, which joins it to its fellow; and, by so doing, must assist the mylo-hyoid in raising the floor and reducing the capacity of the mouth. ”

“ That generated by the man is called "prostatic flow;" that produced by the woman "pre-coital secretion."
Now, if time is given for this fluid to be secreted and exuded, all the parts become covered or saturated with it, and they are admirably equipped for easy union. The glans penis is then covered with the slippery fluid, and the vulva and all the walls of the vagina are laved with the substance. At the same time, the vaginal walls have widened and grown soft, and all the parts of the vulva (which are yet to be named and described in detail) are in like condition. ”

“ This ventral gonad then develops into the ovary in the female Craniotes, and the testicles in the male.
In the formation of the gonidia or erotic sexual cells and their conjunction at fecundation we have the sole essential features of sexual reproduction; but in the great majority of animals we find other organs taking part in it. The chief of these secondary sexual organs are the gonoducts, which serve to convey the mature sexual cells out of the body, and the copulative organs, which bring the fecundating male sperm into touch with the ovum-bearing female. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ This is the inguinal ligament of the primitive kidneys, known in the male as the Hunterian ligament (Figure 2.400 gh) , and in the female as the "round maternal ligament" (Figure 2.401 r) . In woman the ovaries travel more or less towards the small pelvis, or enter into it altogether. In the male the testicles pass out of the ventral cavity, and penetrate by the inguinal canal into a sac-shaped fold of the outer skin. When the right and left folds ("sexual swellings") join together they form the scrotum. The various mammals bring before us the successive stages of this displacement. ”

“ If the position with the husband superior is taken, let him, after he has gotten into place and before the organs are united, have his wife take his penis in her hand, and, as he moves his hips up and down, stroke her vulva, especially the clitoris, with the glans penis—not entering the vagina at once, but continuing this form of exterior contact of the organs, for a longer or shorter time—slipping past the wide open vaginal mouth, even when the wife raises her thighs and, as it were, begs for an entrance ”

“ During coitus, in woman, as in man, a process of ejaculation normally occurs, taking the form of rhythmical muscular contractions, affecting not only the perineal muscles, but also the muscular investment of the vagina, and occasionally, perhaps, the uterus itself. These muscular contractions also favour the expulsion of a secretion, but this secretion does not contain the reproductive cells of the female, and consists merely of a mixture of in different secretions--the secretion of Bartholin's glands, that of the uterine mucous membrane, and that of the mucous glands of the vagina and vulva. ”

“ 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. ”

“ There is occasionally only a single median gland; and as a general rule the two glands open by a median unpaired orifice. Penial chaetae may or may not be present.
Fig. 193.—Female reproductive organs of Hyperiodrilus. XII-XV, Segments of the body; 1, spermathecal sac; 2, egg-sac; 3, spermatheca; 4, ovary.
The structure of the female organs differs considerably in detail in the different genera. But Hyperiodrilus may be taken as an instance of a genus in which these organs are as complicated as they are anywhere. ”

“ Hunter supposes, by pushing the said lamina forward, and following it close, so at last to make good an entrance into the womb, surrounded by this inner lamina of the decidua, which the ovulum compels to enlarge with its own gradual enlargement, until both fill the entire cavity of the uterus, and the inner lamina of the decidua comes in contact with itself. It is impossible to conceive a more improbable operation, or one more contrary to facts. Yet such is the notion formed by Hunter of an imaginary membrane, to which he has given the name of reflected decidua ”

“ The female organs may be most conveniently studied by tracing them inwards from the cloaca. The vagina (v.) opens immediately posterior to the vas deferens, and like it is lined by a continuation of the external cuticle. After passing about half-way across the segment it bends backwards and terminates in a small cyst, the receptaculum seminis (fig. 1, E, r.s.) ; this receives and stores up the male fertilizing elements, retaining them until the ova are ripe. From its posterior extremity there passes a thin-walled canal, wider than the vagina (f.) ”

“ 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 greater labia, limiting the general orifice of the vulva, exist only in woman and, less markedly, in the female orang-outang. Circular in rodents, transversal in the unique case of the hyena, a heteroclite animal, the vulva is longitudinal in all other mammifers. Completely imperforate in the mole the vagina is more or less closed by a membrane, which the male penis tears in first encounter, in women, and several quadrumanes, certain small monkeys, the marmoset, certain carnivora, the bear, hyena, white-bellied seal, the daman (nailed) ”

“ And what are we to say of the pelvis, that part of the skeleton in which, if anywhere, striking sexual differences exist? It is almost universally believed that in the one case the pelvis is adapted for the act of parturition, in the other case is not so adapted. And yet the character of the pelvis cannot be taken as an absolute criterion of sex. There are to be found, and the wayfarer knows this as well as the anatomist, many women with narrow male-like pelves [4] and many men with the broad pelves of women. ”

“ But in the two lowest classes of our stem, the acrania and cyclostoma, they consist merely of simple sexual glands or gonads, the ovaries of the female sex and the testicles (spermaria) of the male; the former provide the ova, the latter the sperm. In the craniota we always find only one pair of gonads; in the amphioxus several pairs, arranged in succession. They must have had the same form in our hypothetical prospondylus (Figures 1.98 and 1.100 s) . These segmental pairs of gonads are the original ventral halves of the coelom-pouches. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Quite as frequently, perhaps, do fleshy women think themselves dropsical, and mistake motions of the child for movements of water within the abdominal cavity. The motion of the child is not to be confounded with the sensation sometimes produced by the uterus rising out of the pelvis, which produces the feeling of fluttering. At the end of the fourth month, the uterus becomes so large that it is obliged to rise out of the pelvis, and if this elevation takes place suddenly, the sensation accompanying it is pretty strong, and the woman at the time feels sick or faint, and in irritable habits ”

“ His mother was Perictione, a virgin, who was betrothed to one Ariston at the time. In this case, also, Apollo appeared to inform the earthly lover of the child's paternity. Higgins, relating this tradition, adds:
"On this ground, the really very learned Origen defends the immaculate conception [Higgins evidently refers not to the Roman Catholic Doctrine of Mary's stainlessness by that term signified, but to the conception of Jesus] assigning, also, in confirmation of the fact, the example of Vultures (Vautours) who propagate without the male." ”

“ The secretion of the semen commences at the age of puberty. Before this period the testicles secrete a viscid, transparent fluid, which has never been analyzed, but which is doubtless essentially different from semen. The revolution which the whole economy undergoes at this period, such as the tone of the voice, and development of hairs, the beard, the increase of the muscles and bones, etc., is intimately connected with the testicles and the secretion of this fluid.* "Eunuchs preserve the same form as in childhood; their voice is effeminate, they have no beard, their disposition is timid ”

“ Nature quickly arranges a horny protection to the nerves, by the thickening of the skin; thus, an Arab's opinion of the action of a riding hygeen should never be accepted without a personal trial. What appears delightful to him may be torture to you, as a strong breeze and a rough sea may be charming to a sailor, but worse than death to a landsman.
I was determined not to accept the camels now offered as hygeens until I had seen them tried. I accordingly ordered our black soldier, El Baggar, to saddle the most easy-actioned animal for my wife ”