Early contributions of anatomy to obstetrics.

  • Alexander Hugh Freeland Barbour
Date:
1888
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Early contributions of anatomy to obstetrics. 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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    vagina ; but also some have by nature a longer cervix, and others a very- much shortened one. The length [of the vagina] is in most adults 4 inches. It is certainly closed and narrower in virgins, being furnished with folds held together by vessels taking their rise from the uterus ; these cause pain in first sexual intercourse when the folds are opened out, for they are broken and discharge the blood usually seen. For the view is false that a thin partition-membrane has grown up, barricading the vagina ; that this is broken, and causes pain at first sexual intercourse or sooner when menstruation sets in ; and that, grown thicker, it produces the disease called atresia. For in the first place, it is not found in dissection ; and in the second place, in virgins it ought to offer resistance to examination with a probe, for the probe penetrates deeply ; in the third place, if the membrane was the cause of pain in intercourse, excessive pain must necessarily accompany the appearance of menstrua- tion, and not be delayed till coitus.1 Further, if the membrane's becoming thick caused atresia, we should find it in the same place constantly, in the same way in which we always see other parts each in its own place. But in cases of atresia, the obstructing membrane is found at one time near the labia, at others in the middle of the vagina,2 at others at the os uteri. So much for the vagina. External Genitals.—The pails seen outside are called irTepvyw/jLara,3 forming, as it were, the lips of the vagina. They are thick, fleshy, and extending down beside each thigh, as it were, diverging from each other ; above, they end in what we call vify^i?,4 which is the beginning of the two labia. In Nature this fleshy prominence is muscular, and it is called nymphe through its being covered as brides are veiled.5 Below the clitoris another fleshy prominence lies concealed, which belongs to the neck of the bladder ; it is called the urethra. The rough portion forming a fold within is ealled xe'A.os.G Bladder.—The Female Bladder differs from that of the male ; for the former is larger, and has the neck curved, the latter is smaller with a straight neck. The nature of the female organs having been described, we go on to the functions of the Uterus:—Menstruation, Conception, Pregnancy; and, after development of the foetus, Parturition. Following the natural order, we shall speak first of Menstruation. In reading this chapter no one can fail to be impressed with the scientific orderliness with which the subject is treated, the exclusion of matter adventitious to anatomy, and the dogged keeping to facts. In the subject matter we note the following statements as of peculiar interest in relation to more modern work:—When these (the ligaments) are shortened by inflammation, it (the uterus) is dragged over and lies to the side. It (the os externum) becomes open at certain times, as in the orgasm of coitus, to receive the semen, and during menstruation that the blood may escape. 1 Soranus here combats some view that the hymen was always imperforate, and hence had to be broken even when menstruation sets in. 2 AldoTov—here used for the vagina. 3 i e., -wings—the labia majora. 4 Not what we now term the nymphse (labia minora), but the clitoris, as is evident from his description of its relations. Alo. to rats vv/ji.<ftevoiuL€vais bfxo'nos vwoiXTeWea' to aapKiov. c i.e., a lip—the labium minus.
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