The anatomy of humane bodies epitomized wherein all parts of man's body, with their actions and uses, are succinctly described, according to the newest doctrine of the most accurate and learned modern anatomists / by a Fellow of the College of Physicians, London.

CHAP. XXVIII.

Of the Vagina, and its Contents, viz. the Hymen and Carunculae myrtiformes.

IT has its name Vagina or Sheath, because it receives the Penis like a Sheath. It is called also the door of the Womb, and its greater Neck, to distinguish it from the lesser, just now described in the foregoing Chapter.

It is a soft and loose Pipe, uneven with orbicu∣lar wrinkles, of a nervous but somewhat spongy substance (which lust causes to puff up a little, that it may embrace the Yard more closely) a∣bout seven fingers breadth long, and as wide as the streight Gut: all which yet, both length, width and looseness differ in respect of age, &c. and as a Woman is inflam'd more or less with lust.

So also the aforesaid wrinkles are much more nu∣merous and close set in Virgins, and in Women that seldom accompany with a Man, and that have never born Children, than in those that have born many Children, and in Whores that use frequent copulation, or those that have long laboured under the fluor albus, for in all these three sorts they are almost obliterated.

It has very many Arteries and Veins, some of which inosculate one with another, and others not: By the Arteries that open into it do the Menses sometimes flow in Women with Child that are plethorick: for they cannot come from the Womb it self, unless abortion follow, as some∣times it does. These Vessels bring plenty of Bloud hither in the venereal congress, which heating and puffing up the Vagina encreaseth the pleasure, and hinders the Man's Seed from cool∣ing before it reach the Ʋterus. They spring not only from the Hypogastrick but also from the Hemorrhoidal, but these latter run only through the lower part of the Vagina. Its Nerves spring from those that are inserted into the Ʋterus, but most from those of Os sacrum. De Graef says that all along the Vagina there are abundance of pores, out of which a serous pituitous humour always flows to moisten it, but especially in coitu, when it is sometimes offensive to the Man through its quantity, but encreases the pleasure of the Woman, and is that which is taken for her Seed, as has been noted already.

Near its outer end, under the Nymphae (of which in the next Chapter) in its fore and up∣per part it receives the neck of the Urinary blad∣der encompassed with its Sphincter; opposite

whereto in its hinder or lower part it is strongly knit to the Sphincter of the streight Gut.

In Virgins its duct is so strait, that at their first congress with a Man they have commonly more pain than pleasure through the extension of it by the Penis, whereby some small Vessels break, out of which Bloud issues as out of a slain Victim (to speak with Diemerbro••ck:) unless we should rather think that the Bloud proceeds from the rupture of the Hymen, which we now come to describe.

The Hymen is a thin Nervous membrane inter∣woven with carnous Fibres, and endowed with many little Arteries and Veins, spread across the duct of the Vagina, behind the insertion of the neck of the Bladder, with a hole in the midst that will admit the top of ones little finger, by which the Menses flow. It is otherwise called the Zone or Girdle of Chastity. Where it is found in this form described, it is a certain note of Virginity; but upon the first admission of a Man's Yard it is necessarily broke and bleeds, which Bloud is cal∣led the Flower of Virginity; and of this the holy Text makes mention in Deuteron. 22. verses 13.— 21. And when once it is broke, it never closes again.

But though a Bridegroom when he finds these signs of Virginity may certainly conclude he has married a Maid; yet it will not follow on the contrary, that where they are wanting, Virgini∣ty is also wanting. For the Hymen may be corro∣ded by acrimonious fretting humours flowing through it with the Menses, or from the falling out or inversion of the Ʋterus or the Vagina at

least, which sometimes happens even to Maids. Or if a Maid be so indiscreet as to become a Bride while her Courses flow or within a day after, then both the Hymen and the inner wrinkled Membrane of the Vagina are so flaggy and relaxed, that the Penis may enter glibly without any lett, and so give suspicion of Unchastity, when indeed she's unblameable saving for her imprudence to marry at that season.

Sometimes in elderly Maids the Hymen grows so strong that a Man is glad to make many essays before he can penetrate it. Yea in some naturally it is quite closed up, and these by this means ha∣ving their Menses stopt, are in great peril of their life if they be not relieved by Surgery, viz. opening it with some sharp Instrument.

Close to the Hymen lie the four Carunculae myr∣tiformes, so called from their resembling Myrtle∣berries. The largest of them is uppermost, stan∣ding just at the mouth of the urinary passage which it shuts after water is made. Opposite to this in the bottom of the Vagina there is another, and on each side one, so that they stand in a square. But of these there is only the first in Maids; the other three are not indeed Caruncles, but little knobs made of the angular parts of the broken Hymen roll'd into a heap by the wrinkling of the Vagina, according to Riolanus and Diemerbroeck. These three when the Vagina is extended in a Wo∣mans labour, lose their asperity and become smooth, so that they disappear, untill it be again contracted to its natural straitness.

De Graef affirms,

that the Vagina near its outer orifice has a Sphincter muscle almost

three fingers broad, that upon occasion con∣stringes or contracts it. So that he says Men and Women need not be solicitous concerning the Genitals being proportionable one to the other; for the Vagina is made so artificially (affabrè is his word) that it can accommodate it self to any Penis, so that it will give way to a long one, meet a short one, widen to a thick one, constringe to a small one: so that every Man might well enough lie with any Woman, and every Woman with any Man.]

Thus he.

Having thus described the parts of the Vagina, its use is easily declared to be, to receive the Man's Yard being erect, to direct and convey the Seed into the Womb, to serve for a Conduit by which the Menses may flow out, and to afford a passage to the Foetus in its birth, and to the After∣birth.

Notes

• I••s nam••.
• Descripti∣on.
• Hymen.
• Caruncu∣lae myrti∣formes.