Gynoecium

“ Myrtles and Lythraceæ) very large in the andrœcium by splitting, and in the gynœceum also is often different. (When suppression takes place it is principally in the corolla and petal-stamens.) In nearly all instances the calyx is valvate. Gyncœceum multicarpellary, multilocular, with only one style (except Haloragidaceæ) . In the majority the ovules are situated on an axile placenta in the multilocular ovary. Endosperm is wanting in the majority.—Less important exceptions: Rhizophoraceæ and Gunnera have stipules. Haloragidaceæ have several styles and endosperm. Rhizophora also has endosperm. ”

“ Both kinds of reproductive organs may occur in a single zooecium, and the reproductive elements pass when ripe into the body-cavity. Their mode of escape is unknown in most cases. In some Gymnolaemata, polypides which develop an ovary possess a flask-shaped “intertentacular organ,” situated between two of the tentacles, and affording a direct passage into the introvert for the eggs or even the spermatozoa developed in the same zooecium. In other cases the reproductive cells perhaps pass out by the atrophy of the polypide, whereby the body-cavity may become continuous with the exterior. ”

“ The presence or absence of sterility, natural or enforced, always present, or say appearing after the birth of one child, must all be donated a prominent place in studying the endocrine make-up of a woman. When there is not enough ovarian secretion, the ovum may not be able to burst through the ovary, a necessity before it may begin its travels to the uterus. Next, the propulsive action of the genital ducts may be insufficient because of defective corpus luteum. Or the uterus may not have received enough posterior pituitary or thyroid to make it fit soil for the ovum to plant itself in. ”

“ 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. ”

“ There is a class of tumors which, while not ovarian, lie so near to the ovary as often to involve it, and usually need precisely the same treatment as cysts of that organ. In their extirpation the ovary is almost always also involved. This close anatomical relationship makes it needful to describe them in conjunction with ovarian tumors. They comprise Cysts of the Parovarium, Cysts of the Oviducts, or Fallopian Dropsy, and Cysts of the Terminal Vesicle of the Oviduct, often called the Hydatid or Vesicle of Morgagni. ”

“ If she sleeps long, so much the better, so much more will she be benefited by the presence of the semen and its absorption. When she naturally wakens, she may bathe the vulva region with warm water; but there is no need of, nor is it wise to try to cleanse the vagina and the uterine tract by the use of a vaginal syringe. Above all, never inject cold water into the vagina, especially do not do this immediately after coitus. Some women use a cold water injection immediately after coitus. There is no surer way to ill health and ultimate suicide. ”

“ Some morbid influence of genital origin is always responsible for the appearance of the symptoms.
Nympho-mania, therefore, often co-exists with lesions of the ovaries (simple ovaritis, cystic ovaritis, tumours of the ovary) , with lesions of the Fallopian tubes and of the uterus (salpingitis, chronic metritis and tumours of the uterus) , with chronic vaginitis and lesions of the clitoris (hypertrophy and tumour formation) , and even with peri-vaginal or peri-uterine lesions (cysts or tumours) . ”

“ From a false shame, women often continue to suffer from vaginismus for months and even years, without a single effective coitus having ever taken place; it is only the consequent sterility which at last leads to medical advice being sought. The physician then usually ascertains that the hymen is still intact, or at least incompletely destroyed, that on this membrane and on various parts of the vulva there are erosions, and that the whole of the external genitals outside the hymen are in a state of inflammation more or less acute. ”

“ At the same time, they are intimately connected with the secretion of the semen. Once the epididymis becomes infected, there is nothing to prevent the organisms, together with inflammatory products, from being mixed with the semen and ejaculated during coitus. Also in the vesicles, unless the inflammation is so severe as to occlude the excretory duct, the organisms are mixed with the vesicular secretion, which is emptied into the urethra during ejaculation. Carried along with the bacteria, are, of course, toxic products, degenerated cells, and the otherwise altered secretion of the glands. ”

“ It must be added, however, that even if the semen is effused merely at the mouth of the vagina, without actual penetration, the spermatozoa are still not entirely without any resource save their own motility in the task of reaching the ovum. As we have seen, it is not only the uterus which takes an active part in detumescence; the vagina also is in active movement, and it seems highly probable that, at all events in some women and under some circumstances, such movement favoring aspiration toward the womb may be communicated to the external mouth of the vagina. ”

“ The parts of the genito-urinary apparatus that are covered by pavement epithelium are much more resistant to the gonococcus than are the parts covered with cylindrical epithelium. For this reason the external genital surface and the vagina of the woman, and the vaginal aspect of the cervix, are often exempt when other less resistant structures are attacked. ”

“ Its principal symptoms are: inflammation, pain, burning and discharge. In men, it attacks the urethra; in women it attacks the cervix—the neck of the womb—the urethra, and the vulva. The vagina is seldom attacked in adult women, because the mucous membrane of the adult vagina is rather tough and does not offer a good soil for the development of the gonococcus germ. The discharge that a woman has when she has gonorrhea comes principally or exclusively from the neck of the womb. In little girls, however, in whom the lining of the vagina is tender, gonorrhea of the vagina and the vulva is common. ”

“ To the secretion is then added the product of the vesicles, which contributes markedly to its fluid content, nourishes the sperms, and supplies the ferment which induces clotting of the semen when ejaculated. This is very important because the clot formed in the vagina protects the delicate spermatozoa from the hostile acid vaginal secretion. The prostate likewise adds bulk and nourishing substances, besides stimulating the spermatozoa to fuller and more lasting motility. ”

“ Gonorrhea in women may attack any part of the genito-urinary tract. It rarely attacks a number of structures at one time, but it usually becomes localized in one 451 or two parts, such as the urethra, the glands of the vestibule, the vulvo-vaginal glands, the vaginal fornices, or the cervix uteri, and runs a subacute course, and may remain quiescent for a long period. It may in time disappear spontaneously, or it may be excited into activity by a variety of causes, such as traumatism, unusual coitus, labor, or miscarriage. ”

“ The patient is not usually very ill and generally recovers. But the gonococcus is very likely to produce an inflammation of the tubes and to close up the fimbriated opening. Thus it is impossible for ova thereafter to enter the tube and gain access to the uterus and accordingly the patient cannot again become pregnant. Unlike other infections, gonorrhea is not conveyed to the patient during or soon after labor on instruments or examining fingers, but is already present in the vulvo-vaginal 399glands and from them may travel to the uterine cavity and to the tubes. ”

“ When the cervix is hypertrophic and greatly enlarged, and the vaginal fornix consequently much elongated, conception is rendered difficult, for the reason that in such cases, either the semen rapidly flows out of the vagina, or else a proper juxtaposition between the penis and the external os no longer occurs, and the semen is ejaculated at some distance from the os. The change in the shape of the portio vaginalis, and also the elongation of the cervical canal, are additional obstacles to the entrance of the spermatozoa into the interior of the uterus ”

“ Women who suffer m severe vaginal catarrh are frequently sterile, the spermatozoa being found dead in the vagina some hours after copulation, although an examination a shorter time afterward revealed them still alive. In cases where conception takes place in spite of a very acid condition of the vaginal secretion, it is probable that some of the spermatozoa enter the uterus before the secretion has had time to act on them, or possibly the spermatozoa being injected in a mass, the acid secretion is unable to penetrate and kill them all. ”

“ Even where the husband has not communicated the disease while it was active in himself, but where the intending husband may have supposed that he was entirely cured of gonorrhœa for a period of two years or more, he may yet communicate the lurking remnants of that disease to the vagina, the effects soon extending up [Pg 117] into the womb, out through the Fallopian tubes, oftentimes reaching the ovaries and necessitating their removal, making it necessary to unsex the woman in order to save her from the wretchedness and misery which are inseparable from the death which they so often preface. ”

“ The great significance of gonorrhoeal infection in relation to sterility in women depends, not only on the changes this disease causes in the Fallopian tubes, leading to interference with the necessary contact of ovum and spermatozoon, but further, upon the occurrence of gonorrhoeal cervical and corporal endometritis, of perimetritis, and secondary parenchymatous metritis. ”

“ Petals 4 or 5 hypogynous, rarely wanting, lobed or fringed at the point, cestivation imperfectly imbricated or sometimes valvate. Disk glandular, somewhat projecting. Stamens hypogynous or rarely perigynous, some multiple of the sepals, (8—80) filaments short, distinct, or slightly united at the base, anthers long, opening at the apex by a double pore. Ovary with two or more cells : style solitary, simple, or sometimes trifid, rarely several : stigmas either free, equalling the cells of the ovary, or united. ”

“ Many of the spermatozoa, weaker than the others, perish on the way, and only a few continue the journey up through the uterus to the tube. When near the little ovum, which remains passive, their movements become more and more rapid, they seem to be attracted to it as if by a magnet, and finally one spermatozoön—just one—the one that happens to be the strongest or the nearest, makes a mad rush at it with its head, perforates it, and is completely swallowed up by it. ”

“ Actual experiment has shown that iodine placed in the vagina in solution is so quickly absorbed by the epithelial walls that in an hour it has penetrated the system and is even being excreted. It still remains, however, for scientific experiments to be devised which will enable us to study the effects of the absorption of substances from the semen. On the other hand, coitus interruptus is not always harmful for the man, for he has the complete sex-act, though a good many men think its effects on them are undesirable, and it may lead to lack of desire or even impotence. ”

“ It is generally the case that the protoplasm of the sexual organ is differentiated into one or more sexual cells. Thus the gametangium usually gives rise to cells which, as they are externally similar, are termed isogametes or simply gametes. Certain forms of the male organ, the spermogonium and the antheridium, give rise to male cells which are termed spermatia when they are non-ciliate, spermatozoids when they are ciliated and free-swimming. Again, the female organs termed oogonia and archegonia produce one or more female cells called oospheres. ”

“ With a hypersecretion of one or all of the glands, the semen becomes quite thin and watery, with a deficiency of solid matter, together with changes in reaction. On the other hand, hypofunction results in a secretion too viscid, which is equally unsuited to the requirements of the spermatozoa. The thin watery semen clots imperfectly or not at all, and clotting is essential in protecting the spermatozoa from the acid secretions of the vagina. Likewise, a medium too viscid is a distinct hindrance to motility. Changes in reaction are very frequently encountered. ”

“ 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.) ”

“ Your general practitioner will always recommend to you a specialist if you ask him to. When the disease attacks the uterus and ovaries it very often blocks the fallopian tubes and prevents the impregnation of the ovum. It is said that over one-third of the childless marriages are due to gonorrhoea in women, innocently contracted from their husbands. Both men and women can become sterile from this disease. The seminal tubes in the man become blocked, thus disabling him from impregnating the ovum. ”