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

  • Milne, Alexander
Date:
1871
Catalogue details

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 Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    from near the superior commissure to near the middle of the orifice of the vagina. They are folds of mucous membrane, and between these coats are areolar and vascular tissue and nerves. They are named nymplue because they were supposed by the older authors to dii-ect the course of the urine. They mantle the clitoris and the urinary meatus. The internal labia increase the secretory surface, but can do little in the way of increasing the ca])acity of the vulva during labour. Sometimes they become hypertrophied, and project beyond the external labia. Dr Bedford mentions a case where, during labour (so large were they), a prac- t itioner fancied that he was dealing with a breech case, the labia being mistaken for the scrotum and testes. 36. Clitoris.—The clitoris is a small mass of erectile tissue, situated below the symjihysis j^ubis, and between the labia externa. It consists of two corpora caver- nosa, attached by crura to the rami of the ischium and pubis, and uniting in the middle line. Each of the bodies is covered V>y a fibrous sheath. The organ is imperforate, but there is a spongy bit in front, called the glans, covered by integument, hardly worth the name of lU’epuce. It possesses two muscles, the erec- tores clitorides, arising from the pubic and ischial rami, and which are inserted into the crura. A suspensoiy ligament also connects the clitoris with the pubis. It is the analogue of the penis in the male j is capable of much erection ; and is the principal seat of sexual sen- sibility. As Dr Meigs has it, “ it is the organ of touch to the aphrodisiac sense.” In some females (hysterical) it is liable to almost constant erection, and in this state, when extreme, it offers an impediment to micturition. Hence, in those women, it is often necessary to use the catheter. Dr Tyler Smith notices an upAvard displace- ment, or dislocation, of it, which is common in those women who indulge in the dejilorable habit of delecta- tion, or self-abuse. When such females marry, the sexual orgasm during coition is often awanting, partly