Vulva

“ The infected child should sleep by herself, and utmost care must be exercised in preventing her fingers from first touching the itching vulva and then placing them to the eyes or to the mother's eyes. A vulva pad must be worn as long as the disease lasts. The physician will give you the proper medicines to be used in these cases, and if no physician is within reach, you are perfectly safe in dropping into the spread apart vulva a few drops of twenty-per-cent argyrol and then applying the vulva pad. After each treatment the hands of the mother or nurse must be most rigidly cleansed. ”

“ If she be far enough abandoned with her passion, such entrance may be made at a single stroke, not to say a furious plunge. But if the vulva and vagina are not yet fully dilated, the entrance should be carefully made, gently made, as she can bear it, as she wishes it to be. ”

“ There are also women who love the coitus only on the edge of their vulva, and when a man lying upon them wants to get his member into the vagina, they take it out with the hand and place its gland between the lips of the vulva. ”

“ Trim nails and scrub hands with soap and hot water. 2. Shave vulva. 3. Scrub and soak hands. 4. Scrub vulva, inner surface of thighs and lower abdomen with green soap and sterile water, alcohol, 70%, and lastly bichloride 1–1000 or lysol 1% or 2%, using sterile sponges and taking care not to contaminate vulva from surrounding fields. 5. Cover vulva with sterile towel or pad. This may be taken as a description of a fairly typical method of preparing a patient for vaginal examination or for delivery, which is widely employed and with satisfactory results. ”

“ The outer parts of the larger lips are covered with hair. In thickness and quality these labiae are much like the lips of the face of each individual, a large mouth and thick lips indicate a large vulva and thick labiae and vice-versa. The clitoris is a gland that is located forward, on the upper part of the vulva. It corresponds, almost exactly, in make-up and function, with the glans penis of the male organ. The vaginal opening is at the rear, or lower part of the vulva, and leads directly into the vagina proper. ”

“ There can be no doubt whatever that the mucus which is so profusely poured out over the external sexual organs in woman during the excitement of sexual desire has for its end the lubrication of the parts and the facilitation of the passage of the intromittent organ. The most casual inspection of the cold, contracted, dry vulva in its usual aspect and the same when distended, hot, and moist suffices to show which condition is and which is not that ready for intercourse, and until the proper condition is reached it is certain that coitus should not be attempted. ”

“ A woman’s genital apparatus is both internal and external. The external genitalia are called the vulva when they are referred to all together. The most obvious part of the vulva is the part we called the major (or sometimes outer) lips, which enfold the rest of the genitalia. If these lips are parted we see two smaller lips; these are called the minor lips and have a very high degree of sexual responsiveness. Even in books for laymen the Latin words are often used for these two organs: labia majoris and labia minoris, which mean, simply enough, the major lips and the minor lips. ”

“ Vulvar and vaginal hyperesthesia, inflammations of the vulva, undue shortness of the vagina, unless great care is exercised by the husband, will induce painful coitus, and may bring about sterility by favoring the formation of a copulation sac outside of the axis of the uterine canal, and consequently misdirection of the semen.
Scrofula, probably by its effects on the general condition, leading to deficient development of the whole body, the genital organs included, may be productive of sterility. ”

“ In many cases the discharge is of so acrid a character that it excoriates the vulva and surrounding parts. Walking, or even standing, is often painful, particularly the former, owing to the attrition of the inflamed or excoriated surfaces.
A physical examination causes pain, and if the inflammation has extended to the vulva, urethra, or the vulvo-vaginal glands, it will often produce intense suffering. When the vaginitis is acute, the labia are swollen, the vagina assumes a more or less intense red color in place of the light or pale rose-color of health ”

“ The woman lies on her back, you sit down between her legs and place your member between the lips of her vulva, which you fit over it with your thumb and first finger; then you move so as to procure for your member as far as it is in contact with the woman a lively rubbing, which action you continue until her vulva gets moistened with the liquid emitted from your verge. ”

“ Once in, the intense heat of the vulva promotes the enjoyment; the member goes to and fro, burning for the perfect pleasure engendered by the alternate friction against the lips of the vulva and against the matrix. As soon as one ejaculation has taken place it tries promptly to withdraw, which causes the vulva to cry out, "Why do you leave, you liar? You should be called coward and liar." ”

“ Lying in each other's arms, in this second described position, the organs naturally come into contact in such a way as to make the further excitation of the vulva and clitoris most natural and easy. The spreading of the wife's hips, caused by her throwing her left leg over her husband's right and drawing up of her left knee, opens the vulva wide ”

“ 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. ”

“ The period of full development is accompanied by the escape from the vulva of a serous, mucous, muco-purulent or purulent discharge of varying odour. Urination is painful and defæcation difficult. Examination of the vagina by means of a speculum shows the mucous membrane to be excoriated, ultra-sensitive, ulcerating or suppurating at certain points. ”

“ This vagina is met with in a few women only. With some it is natural; with others it becomes what it is by long abstinence. It is burning for a member, and, having got one in its embrace, it refuses to part with it until its fire is extinguished.
El hacene (the beautiful) .—This is the vulva which is white, plump, in form vaulted like a dome, firm and without any deformity. You cannot take your eyes off it, and to look at it changes a feeble erection into a strong one. ”

“ 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. ”

“ This vulva is strong enough to suffer resignedly the most violent and prolonged coition. If it were assaulted a hundred times it would not be vexed or annoyed; and instead of venting reproaches, it would give thanks to God. It will show the same patience if it has to do with several members who visit it successively.
This kind of vagina is found in women of a glowing temperament. If they only knew how to do it, they would not allow the man to dismount, nor his member to retire for a single moment. ”

“ Immediately after the birth of the baby and the expulsion of the afterbirth, the thighs and vulva are cleansed as follows: Into a basin of warm, boiled water are dropped four small antiseptic tablets of bichlorid of mercury; this gives a proper antiseptic wash. Into this solution are placed four pieces of sterile cotton Two of these are used, one at a time, without being returned to the solution to wash each inside of the thigh, the remaining two to cleanse the vulva. Without drying the vulva, two sterile pads are applied and pinned to the binder. ”

“ Attention must be drawn to the fact that the vagina, cervix, uterus and tubes form a continuous canal from the vulva to the easily infected peritoneum, a fact which makes absolute surgical cleanliness in obstetrics virtually a matter of life or death to the patient. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In hypospadia, where the vaginal orifice is situated within the rectum, vaginal conjugation is well-nigh impossible. Adhesions of the labia majora or minora, a rigid imperforated hymen, an extreme vaginal atresia near the orifice and elephantiasis of the vulva will cause impotence of conjugation. All acute inflammations of the vulva, vagina, rectum, uterus tubes, or ovaries may render approach painful and impossible. Urethral caruncles, urethritis, fissures at the neck of the bladder, rectal fissures or hemorrhoids may also render conjugation difficult. ”

“ In children, as Martineau pointed out, the vulva appears to look directly forward and the clitoris and urinary meatus easily appear, while in adult women, and especially after attempts at coitus have been made, the vulva appears directed more below and behind, and the clitoris and meatus more covered by the labia majora; so that the child urinates forward, while the adult woman is usually able to urinate almost directly downwards in the erect position, though in some cases (as may occasionally be observed in the street) she can only do so when bending slightly forwards. ”

“ The continuance of this excessive relaxation and atony of the vaginal walls and the perineum for a long time after parturition is, doubtless, due to subinvolution.
SYMPTOMATOLOGY AND COURSE.—The patient will complain of a bearing-down sensation in the vagina, with a sense of fulness and heat in that locality, sometimes extending to the vulva. These symptoms are aggravated by any muscular exertion, particularly by walking. A physical examination will show the presence of an elastic, globular tumor between the labia. ”

“ Unless first moistened with saliva the member cannot enter.
The odour it emits is full of charms."
It is also said that this name applies to the vagina of women who are plump and fat. When such a one crosses her thighs one over the other the vulva stands out like the head of calf. If she lays it bare it resembles a saa [16] for corn placed between her thighs; and, if she walks, it is apparent under her clothes by its wavy movement at each step. May God, in his goodness and generosity, let us enjoy such a vagina! It is of all the most pleasing, the most celebrated, the most wished for. ”

“ OBSTRUCTIONS IN THE VAGINA, AND NARROWNESS OR OBSTINATE RESISTANCE OF THE VULVA AND PERINEUM.
The Vagina may be partly closed by its sides growing together, or it may be united by bands and membranes stretching across; and these obstructions may be sufficient to impede or prevent delivery. Most usually they give way, and are gradually broken down by the pressure of the child's head; but if they prove too strong, after waiting a reasonable time, they must be cut through. ”

“ As it is rather awkward for a woman while in this posture to free one hand to reach the vulva, Campbell advises that previously to taking this attitude she should insert into the vagina a small glass tube open at each end and long enough to project externally. ”

“ Discharge from the uterus can be eliminated as a cause by placing against the external os a pledget of cotton, frequently renewed, to absorb the discharge before it reaches the vulva, or the parts may be kept clean by frequent douches. In children the stools should be examined for the thread-worm. The urine should always be examined. Diabetes is a frequent cause of pruritus vulvæ in old women. Any pathological condition of the uterus, Fallopian tubes, and ovaries should be treated before we can eliminate this as a possible cause of pruritus. ”

“ Itching of the vulva aggravated by scratching and from the leucorrhœal discharge. Aching in both breasts, but worse in the left. Breasts feel swollen and engorged. Left breast feels bruised and painful on pressure. Nipples itch. In one case where this remedy was given for dryness of the nose and throat, the diminutive almost absent, breasts were restored to their pristine glory, and resulted in the displacement of the cotton batting pads to the exceeding joy and delight of the proud woman. ”

“ For recent researches have shown, on the one hand, that the vagina constitutes 280a natural mechanism for the destruction of pathogenic organisms, and on the other hand, that complete disinfection of the vagina is extremely difficult to effect. Inflammations of the vulva, which are somewhat frequent in consequence of excessive perspiration and undue discharge from the genital canal, demand careful cleansing with soap and water and the use of a soft brush. ”