A treatise on the diseases and special hygiène of females / By Colombat de l'Isère. Translated from the French, with additions, by Charles D. Meigs.
- Marc Colombat de L'Isère
- Date:
- 1850
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A treatise on the diseases and special hygiène of females / By Colombat de l'Isère. Translated from the French, with additions, by Charles D. Meigs. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.
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![her-body, in the ele'gance of her stature and beauty of her form, the delicacy of her features, in her constitution, in the sonorous and melodious tones of her voice, in her sensibility and affections, in her character, her inclinations, her tastes, her habits, and even in her maladies. Very soon all the traits of resemblance between the two sexes are found to be effaced. The bud newly expanded blossoms amongst the flowers, and this brilliant metamorphosis is signalized by the rosy tints of the cheeks and lips, and the perfect development which discloses the arrival of the age of puberty. This important period, this first moment of .triumph, in which na- ture seems to renew herself, is announced by a sentiment of necessity to multiply, within, the principle of life, and by Various striking and admirable phenomena which put an end to the social inertia in which the young girl had lived from the period of her birth. The sexual system soon becomes a centre of fluxion; nature makes great efforts to establish the periodical discharge, and the whole machine, in its inmost recesses, experiences a succession, a violent commotion, a general movement. The new energy of the womb imparts a powerful impulse to the entire system of organs ; their functions be- come more active; the body grows rapidly ; the various portions of the figure become more expressed, and bring out those graceful con- tours that belong to the tender sex alone. At the same time other important changes take place; the pelvis and the sexual organs, which were in a merely rudimental condition, now acquire their full proportions; the throat rises and becomes more sensitive ; the breasts become rounded and full, while they establish -their correspondence of sympathy with the womb. The mons veneris comes out into com- plete relief, and clothes itself with a thick down, which, like a veil covering the organs of modesty, seems to announce that they are destined soon to become fitted to act the important part assigned to them by the law of nature. The meshes of the cellular land adipose] tissue, becoming rapidly filled under the influence of the uterine irra- diations, soon impart to the surface of the body a voluptuous embon- point which lends the highest splendour to the attractive freshness and beauty of youth. The physiognomy of the young woman has now acquired a new expression ; her gestures bear the stamp of her feelings; her language has become more touching and pathetic; her eyes, full of life but languishing, announce a mixture of desires and fears, of modesty and love—in fine, every thing conspires to excite, to caress and to incite. Her tastes, her enjoyments and her inclinations are likewise modi- fied ; her most pressing want is to experience frivolous emotions: she is passionately given to the dance, to show and to company; the curiosity so natural to her sex acquires new force and activity; she devours books of romance, or more than ever fervent in devotion, is excited by the expansive passions, and particularly by religious piety, which is to her a sort of love. At this brilliant period of life her moral, which depends upon her physical condition, undergoes great mutations. The young girl be- comes more tender-hearted, more sensitive, more compassionate, and](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21029313_0025.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
