The principles and practice of midwifery with some of the diseases of women.

  • Milne, Alexander.
Date:
1884
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The principles and practice of midwifery with some of the diseases of women. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    sexual paroxysm begins in the clitoris, and ends in a sensorial orgasm; the clitoris, as Dionis has it, being the seat of that great pleasure which women have in the venereal act. Some of the older physicians held the view that women in whom the venereal orgasm was wanting were sterile; but this is not the case. CHAPTER III.- . INTERNAL ORGANS OF GENERATION. 47. The Uterus, Matrix, or Womb, is the most important of the in- ternal organs of generation. It receives and gives lodgement to the ovum, nourishes it until mature, and then effects its expulsion. It is placed at the upper part of the vagina, in the middle of the upper part of the pelvis, with the bladder in front and the rectum behind, its upper edge appearing slightly above the pelvic brim. The shape of the unimpregnated uterus is pyriform, or, as older wri- ters say, like a flattened pear ; it is rounder posteriorly than anteriorly. In length it is about 2f in.; in breadth, at the widest part, about if in. At the cervix it is about an inch. It is about an inch thick from before backward, and its walls at the thickest part are about half an inch dia- meter. The weight of the organ is about 7 drams. At the lower part is the OS uteri, or mouth of the womb. It has two lips, an anterior and a posterior. It approaches the oval in shape, its diameter transversely being greater than from before backward. The posterior lip is obscured rather by the anterior, which depends a little lower. The opening or slit is transverse, the external angles being turned a little backward, like the mouth of a fish : hence the name os tinea; which is sometimes given to it. Above this is the cervix, and higher the body, the upper part of which is called the fundus. The canal of the cervix leads from the OS uteri, is about f in. long, and of a fusiform shape. It widens a little above the os, and then contracts again at the junction of the cervix with the body. It is flattened from before backward. The mucous membrane which lines it is arranged in a peculiar manner. There are rugae arranged transversely in columns (4 in number, with abouj 15 folds in each), commonly called the arbor vitse. The rugae are separated by four sulci or grooves ; two divide the anterior from the posterior walls, and the other two occupy the middle line of both walls. They are well seen when the cavity of the cervix is laid open. Both on the rugae and the intervening spaces are almost innumerable (10,000) mucous follicles ; so many, indeed, as, according to that able observer, Dr. Tyler Smith, to constitute the cervix an open gland. These rugze secure extensive dilating capacity during the growth of the contained body, as well as during labor ; and the follicles or cysts supply the secretion which ex- cludes the atmospheric air, which promotes the transmission of the sper- matozoa, and serves as a plug during the gravid state. During labor also they secrete the mucus which lines, lubricates, and softens the os and vagina. The mucus is of an alkaline character, that of the vagina, as before said, being acid. This alkalinity ceases where the cylindrical epithelium ends, it being the squamous which secretes the acid mucus.