A systeme of anatomy, treating of the body of man, beasts, birds, fish, insects, and plants illustrated with many schemes, consisting of variety of elegant figures, drawn from the life, and engraven in seventy four folio copper-plates. And after every part of man's body hath been anatomically described, its diseases, cases, and cures are concisely exhibited. The first volume containing the parts of the lowest apartiments of the body of man and other animals, etc. / by Samuel Collins ...

CHAP. XX. Of the Testicles or Ovaries of Women.

THe Testicles of Women, * 1.1 so styled by the Antients, and Ovaries by the Modern Philosophers, are small in Bulk but great in Virtue, as con∣taining prima vitae stamina, as they are the Principles of Generation, and are two Caskets of pretious Stones, * 1.2 which are fluid in their first Origen and Principle, and are afterward Concreted into many parts made up of differ∣ent more solid Substances; or they may be styled Curious Minute Cellars, containing within them many small Bottles, or Vesicles of Liquor of Life, as giving the first matter and rudiments of Being and Life to the best of Ani∣mals.

These choice parts afford many Notices in reference to their situation, shape, size, substance, coats, and use, of which we will treat in the same method as they are propounded.

The Testicles of Women have a different situation from those of Men, * 1.3 which are placed in an Outlet of the body, but are seated in VVomen in a small allodgment (called the Pelvis) belonging to the lowest apartiments of the Body, within the Belly, two Fingers breadth from the bottom of the Womb, * 1.4 to whose sides they are affixed by the interposition of the Oviducts, better known by the Name of Tubae Fallopianae, and on the other hand by the Preparing Vessels, and by the Mediation of the Membranes encompassing the Spermatick Vessels; they are tied to the Peritonaeum about the Region of the Os Ilion, and seem to observe the same hight with the bottom of the Womb, in Maids; and in Women with Child they are seated much lower, when the Womb is highly distended by the bulk of the Foetus.

These Testicles are discriminated from those of Men, * 1.5 as being naked of the Cremaster Muscles, which are Attendants of the Testicles of Men, as hanging upon them, and are drawn upward by their Contraction, when the Penis is erected.

They are lodged within the circumference of the lowest Apartiments to preserve them from the coldness of the Air, and that they may be cherished with the more inward heat of the Body, as also are seated near the Ute∣rus, that the Impregnated Ova might have a more ready recourse by the Oviducts to the bosom of the Womb, as their Conservative and place of perfection, in which the parts of the Body are most wonderfully formed in Number, Weight, and Measure.

The Testicles of Women are endued with a shape different from those of Men, * 1.6 which are more round and Oval, and the other more flattish, and in their lower Region are somewhat Convex and have a Semi-Oval Fi∣gure, and in their upper part are more plain, and being severed from their Blood-vessels and Ligaments, seem to be furnished with a flattish half Oval Figure.

The Surface of Womens Testicles is more uneven than Mens, * 1.7 as having divers small protuberances seated in the Membrane, proceeding from the round Seminal Vesicles lifting up the Coats of the Testicles, and in some

places between the Vesicles, the Tunicles are Contracted, making as it were a kind of Wrinkles or Fissures in their Surfaces.

The Testicles of Women have great difference according to several Ages and Constitutions; in young Plethorick Bodies they are much larger than in old or Hectick Bodies, by reason the Vesicles are more distended, as replenished with Seminal Liquor, which is very deficient in Antient and Emaciated Bodies; and in the most Succulent VVomen in their greatest Maturity they have much less Dimensions than those of Males, and have a more flabby soft Compage in reference to the Vesicles of Liquor which give way to the touch of the Fingers Compressing them.

The Testicles of VVomen have a thinner Clothing, * 1.8 as encircled with fewer Coats than those of Men, as they are immured within the thicker walls of the lowest Apartiments, in which they are strongly guarded within Bony Confines, and secured against outward Assaults.

The Ovaries are encompassed with a double Coat, which seem but one, by reason they are so closely affixed to each other by the interposition of fine small Ligaments or Membranes.

The outward and first Integument is somewhat thicker than the other and derived from the Rim of the Belly, * 1.9 which is a common Parent of an out∣ward Coat investing all the Viscera contained in the lowest Venter.

The second and more inward Tunicle of the Ovaries is more fine then the other and is a curious Contexture of many Nervous Fibres so closely in∣terwoven, that they seem to be one entire piece, * 1.10 enwraping the Vesicles of Seminal Liquor; these Coats are instituted by Nature to preserve the Repositories of Genital Juyce from Laceration.

The Testicles being denuded from these Coats, * 1.11 a white soft Substance is presented to our Eyes of a different nature from that of men (which, accord∣ing to Learned de Graaf) is chiefly made up of many Seminal Vessels mutually conjoyned, which being drawn out, exceed in length forty Dutch Ells, as the same Learned Author affirmed. These Vessels cannot be any where discovered in the Testicles of Women, which have another, and no less admirable Structure.

The Ovaries of VVomen, as to their Substance, are a rare Composition, integrated of many Blood-vessels, Nerves, Lymphaeducts, Glands, Vesicles of thin clear Liquor.

The Blood-vessels belonging to these parts, * 1.12 are the Preparing or Sperma∣tick Arteries and Veins † 1.13, which are Ministerial to the Vesicles. * 1.14 The Ar∣teries do take their progress in greater Gyres than those of Men, which notwithstanding have greater length by reason they Expatiate themselves in∣to the Testicles seated without the Cavity of the lowest Apartiment in the bosom of the Scrotum. And I humbly conceive these Arteries have many Flexures in VVomen to hinder the over-hasty motion of the Blood into the Testicles.

The Divarication of the Spermatick Arteries in VVomen, * 1.15 is different from that of Males, in whom they are parted into two branches, of which one and the chief passeth into the Testicle, and the other as the least, goeth to the Epydidimides: In Women the first branch is carried into the Ʋterus, and Associates so with the Hypogastrick Arteries, that no Eye can discover their Terminations to be distinct; whereupon no man (saith Learned de Graaf) can certainly affirm that the Testicles of Women do receive Blood immediately from the Spermatick or from the Hypogastrick Arteries, which before they

terminate, do send two or three Branches into the Testicles. The Sperma∣tick Arteries are more numerous than the other, as they relate to the Ova∣ries, near which they are divided into two or three Branches, and are sub∣divided again into more and more Ramulets, at last inserting themselves, not only into the Coats of the Testicles, but into their Glands and Coat of the Vesicles, which these Arteries Enamel with fruitful Divarications, in the manner of Eggs of Fish and Yolks of Hens Eggs.

The Spermatick Veins are Associates of the Arteries, * 1.16 and sport themselves in various Divarications through the body of the Testicles, and no where In∣osculate with the Spermatick Arteries, by reason their Extremities are implan∣ted into the Parenchyma of the Testicles to receive the Blood and carry it to∣ward the Heart, after it hath bedewed the Substance of the Ovaries, which it could not effect if the Vital Liquor was transmitted immediately out of the Preparing Arteries into the Veins by mutual Perforations.

The Spermatick Veins are much shorter than the Arteries, as taking their progress in a more straight position without any Maeanders or Flexures, which are very observable in the Arteries,

The use of the Spermatick and Hypogastrick Arteries is to import Blood into the Substance of the Testicles, * 1.17 in order to give life to them and prepare a Matter to propagate and repair the Spermatick Matter in the Vesicles when it is exhausted by Generation, by the transmission of the Impregnated Vesicles or Eggs through the deferent Vessels, the Fallopian Tubes into the bosom of the Womb.

The use of the Spermatick Veins is to reconvey the Blood (toward the Heart) not useful in the Glands of the Testicles, * 1.18 for the Generation and support of Genital Matter enclosed in the Vesicles of the Ovaries.

The Nerves of the Testicles are of two sorts, * 1.19 the one is derived from the Par Vagum, and the other from the Os Sacrum; both these kinds of Nerves do furnish the Ovaries with fruitful Rarifications of Fibres, which are in∣serted both into the Glands and Coats belonging to the Veficles of Seminal Liquor, called Ova by the late Anatomists

The use of these Nerves is to convey Succus Nutricius into the Substance of the Testicular Glands, * 1.20 where it incorporates (as I humbly conceive) with the more mild parts of the Blood, and enobleth it in order to generate the Seminal Liquor conserved in the Vesicles, until there be a use of it.

The Lymphaeducts relating to the Ovaries are made of a thin Transparent Tunicle, * 1.21 and have their roots arising (as I suppose) out of the Testicular Glands, and ascend and branch themselves into the Coat of the Ovaries, and from thence take their progress the nearest way (as I humbly con∣ceive) toward the common receptacle.

The use of the Lymphaeducts is to receive the thin Recrements of the Nerves and Arteries conveyed out of the substance of the Glands, * 1.22 wherein the more pure parts of the Nervous and Mild Vital Liquor is disposed of by Nature in order to the production of Albuminous Matter of the Ve∣sicles, and the thin superfluous Lympha is admitted into the Origen of the Lymphaeducts seated in the Glands of the Testicles.

The Globules of the Testicles appertaining to Women, * 1.23 are Bodies made up of many Minute Glands, and every one of them is encircled with a pro∣per Coat, and are so closely connected to each other by many fine Liga∣ments, that they seem to constitute one entire Glandulous Substance enter∣woven with the Vesicles of the Ovaries.

The Glandulous Substance is an Aggregate Body, * 1.24 consisting of Preparing Arteries and Veins, Nerves and Lymphaeducts, whereof some Import Li∣quor as the Arteries and Nerves, Vital and Nervous Juyce into the Paren∣chyma of the Glands, and the Veins and Lymphaeducts do carry Blood and Lympha out of them.

The use of these Glands adjoining to the Vesicles, * 1.25 is to be Secretories of various Liquors, Blood and Succus Nutricius brought in by the Extremities of Arteries and Nerves into the body of the Glands, that the more soft and fine particles of Blood and Nervous Liquor being severed from their Recre∣ments may embody and be transmitted by the most Minute Ducts of the Coats of the Vesicles, to beget and repair the decayed Seminal Liquor, encircled with the thin Tunicles of the Vesicles.

The Vesicles belonging to the Ovaries, * 1.26 are the end and perfection of the other parts, as Arteries, Veins, Nerves, Lymphaeducts and Glands, by reason they are all ministerial to the Vesicles, as conducive to the propaga∣tion of the Seminal Liquor conserved in them.

These Vesicles, the nobler parts of the Ovaries, * 1.27 are replenished with di∣vers kinds of Liquors discriminated by various Colours, some Yellow, others Crystalline and Transparent like Water, and others are Wheyish or whitish in Hue; most of which are unkindly, and one only is natural, which is of a Transparent Colour, somewhat resembling the white of an Egg in Colour, and is somewhat thinner in Consistence, as the Semen of VVomen is more watry than that of Men, by which it is rendred more ex∣alted as endued with more active Fermentative Principles.

Whence may be easily inferred that the use of the Ova, lodged in the Testicles of Women, is to be a material Cause in the Formation of the Foe∣tus, which being exalted by the Seminal Liquor of the Male, is an efficient principle of Generation, giving an Effervescence to the Faeminine Vesicles, by vigorous Fermentative Elements, productive of Conception.

These Veficles of the Testicles may be truly styled Eggs in reference to the great Analogy they hold in likeness with the Eggs contained in the Ovaries of Birds, * 1.28 by reason these Vesicles are filled with Liquor (much resembling the white of an Egg) which being boyled is Concreted into a white solid Substance, the same in Tast, Colour, and Consistence, with the white of a Birds Egg, coagulated by the heat of Fire.

And it is of no great importance, that those of Women are not im∣mured within thick and hard Shells as well as those of Birds, appointed by Nature to secure them from outward violence of cold Air, as excluded the Uterus of the Fowl, whereas the Eggs of Women encompassed with a soft Membrane, are laid in the warm bed of the Uterus to preserve it against the severity of ill Accidents.

Eggs may be discovered not only in Birds but in all kind of Viviparous as well as Oviparous Animals, as all sorts of Fish, Fowl, Quadrupeds, * 1.29 as Cows, Sows, Bitches, Hares, Cunneys, Squirrels, Polcats, Hedghogs, Por∣cupines, &c.

Curious de Graaf hath made many good Observations upon Dissections, how the Eggs of the several Animals differ from each other, and that the Vessels of the Testicles relating to Cunneys and Hares do not exceed a Rape∣seed in Dimensions, and are so little in some Animals that they can scarce be discovered, and Coition and Age make great alterations in the Eggs of seve∣ral Animals, and though they be very minute in younger Creatures, yet they

grow much advanced in greatness in more mature age; and receive a high change after Coition, and resemble the Globules found in the Testicles of impregnated Animals, full of clear Water, and sometimes Albuminous Matter like the white of Eggs.

If any shall be so inquisitive as to demand a reason why the Vesicles of old and other barren Women cannot be impregnated; to which it may be replyed that Sterility may proceed either from the ill Conformation of the Testicles, or from the Indisposition of the Faeminine Seminal Liquor, not capable to be advanced to a Conception by that of Man.

But how may the difference be known between the Hydatides of the Testicles and the Vesicles filled with Seminal Liquor, * 1.30 to which it may be answered the first will grow hard in Coction like the white of an Egg, and the other will retain its Fluidness, and no way admit any Concretion by the heat of Fire: Again, The Hydatides are appendant to the Mem∣branes of the Testicles, as by a kind of Stalks, which cannot be found in true Vesicles belonging to the Testicles of Women.

When the Ova are impregnated by Coition, the Glandulous substance adhering to the Vesicles groweth more large, whence arise Globules made of great variety of Glands, which Secern the Albuminons part of the Blood from the more hot and fierce Particles, and the more refined Atomes of the Nervous Liquor from the Lympha to propagate the Seminal Liquor included in the Vesicles impregnated with the more Spirituous parts of the Genital Juice relating to the Male.

Notes

• * 1.1

  The Testicles or Ovaries.
• * 1.2

  The descrip∣tion of them.
• * 1.3

  The situation of the Ova∣ries.
• * 1.4

  The Connexi∣on of the O∣viducts.
• * 1.5

  The Ovaries are void of Cremaster Muscles.
• * 1.6

  The Figure of the Ovaries.
• * 1.7

  The Ovaries are endued with divers small Protu∣rebancies.
• * 1.8

  The Testicles of Women have fewer Coats than those of Men.
• * 1.9

  The external Coat of the Ovaries.
• * 1.10

  The inward Tunicle of the Ovaries.
• * 1.11

  The Substance of the Testi∣cles.
• * 1.12

  The prepa∣ring Vessels.
• † 1.13

  T. 14. d.
• * 1.14

  The Arteries of the Ova∣ries.
• * 1.15

  The difference between the Testicles of Men and Wo∣men.
• * 1.16

  The Sperma∣tick Veins of the Ovaries.
• * 1.17

  The use of the Spermatick Arteries.
• * 1.18

  The use of the Spermatick Veins.
• * 1.19

  The Nerves of the Ova∣ries.
• * 1.20

  The use of the Nerves.
• * 1.21

  The Lymphae∣ducts of the Ovaries.
• * 1.22

  The use of the Lymphaeducts.
• * 1.23

  The Glands of the Ova∣ries.
• * 1.24

  The substance of the Glands belonging to the Ovaries.
• * 1.25

  The use of the Glands of the Ovaries.
• * 1.26

  The Vesicles of the Ova∣ries.
• * 1.27

  The Vesicles of the Ova∣ries are fur∣nished with divers Li∣quors.
• * 1.28

  The Vesicles of the Ova∣ries are Eggs.
• * 1.29

  Eggs are found in all kind of Animals.
• * 1.30

  The difference between the Seminal Vesi∣cles and Hy∣datides.