The anatomy of the body of man wherein is exactly described every part thereof in the same manner as it is commonly shewed in publick anatomies : and for the further help of yo[u]ng physitians and chyrurgions, there is added very many copper cuts ... / published in Latin by Joh. Veslingus ; and Englished by Nich. Culpeper.

CHAP. 7. Of the Instruments of Generation in Women.

THE preparation of the Instruments of Generation, is no less in the Body of Women, than it is in the Body of Men, for there are those by which the Seed is produced, and mixed with the Seed of Man being produced, and stirred up for the Generation of the Child; such as regard the Seminal matter are the preparing vessels, the Testicles, the perfecting vessels to which those that cast it out are joy∣ned The Womb is for the Conception of the Child.

The preparing vessels are two Veins, and as many Arteries as they are in Man, the right of the Veins proceeds from the Trunk of the Vena Cava, the left from the Emulgent. The original of the Arteries, is from the great Artery, and yet in the beginnings of those, the work of Na∣ture is various, as it is in those of Men: these vessels joyn themselves in their progresse, and yet still remain within the Abdomen, and are car∣ried partly to the Testicles, partly to the Tubae of the Womb; its bot∣tom and Neck in which turning themselves upwards by the Hypoga∣strick vessels, they joyn by Anastomosis, and so they subminister matter not only to breed the Child, but also to nourish the parts.

The Testicles of Women are of a Glandulous substance, softer, and fuller of juyce then Mens are, in such as are young, but lesser, and harder in such as are Ancient; they have only one single Skin, but that is very strong, and fastened to the Ligaments of the Womb; about the bottom of it; they have an evident passage to the bottom of the Womb, though it be but short, and another more slender, and not so easie to be seen, to the Neck of the Womb.

There are neither Epididymides, nor yet Parastatae about the Testicles of Women; for the Seed of Women needs not that exquisite digestion that the Seed of Man doth, for the constitution of it is perfect, seeing it gives fit matter to make the Fruit.

Neither yet doth Womens Testicles stand only for ciphers neither, for they receive the matter from the preparing vessels, and turn it into a watry milky substance; as is copiously found many times in their disse∣ction, especially in such as were young, and flourishing when they died: This Siminal juyce is carried from the Testciles, partly to the Tubae by small passages like the Venae Lacteae, that there it may be perfected; part∣ly to the bottom, and Neck of the Womb, that it may keep them soft and moist, and as the Ancients think to stir the Women up to Venery; although this is only in hotter Natures, and such whose passages are streighter.

To the bottom of the Womb which toucheth the Testicles, the por∣tion

of Spermatical moisture, the Child being now conceived, is of farre Nobler use, for it bears up the Child, and keeps it from the vio∣lent heat of the Womb, and sustains it, that the umbilicar vessels which at first excel a Hair not much in bigness, be not broken by the shaking of the Mothers Body.

The vessels which keep the Seed, and cast it out, are called Tubae, they are two round Bodies joyned to the bottom of the Womb on each side, they are called Tubae because of their crooked bowing like a Trumpet, they are composed of two Membranes, which are common also to the Womb its self, they have Veins & Arteries from the Spermaticals, which are divided into small branches, and Nerves from the same, which creep to the bottom of the Womb. Lastly, as we shewed before, there is a Nervous passage inserted into the bottom of the Womb, which is very seldom extended beyond the longitude of the Tubae.

About the Womb are no Prostatae, nor needs there, because they are no divided Bodies, but joyned by the Tubae, and the Seminal moisture passeth easily into the Womb, as you may easily perceive, if you do but crush one of them with your Finger. Obstructions are freequent in the Tubae, as well as in the Womb; as also swellings, which out of question are causes of Barrenness.

Such Women as are fuitful have a twofold Spermatical matter, the one watry, which moistens and refresheth the Womb, and Fruit in it, the other which is thick in the Tubae, which is mixed with the Seed of Man to make the Conception.

To receive and preserve both Seed and Fruit, is the Womb ordained, it is a part of the inferior Ventricle composed of two Membranes, that so it may be stretched wide when the Child is in it, and contracted a∣gain when it is Born; the exterior Membrane it hath from the Peritonae∣um, which is strong, and out of danger of breaking, the interior which is propper to the Womb, is full of strings and pores: between these Membranes a fleshy contexture compasseth both the bottom and Neck of the Womb, which in the time of Conception like a Sponge drinks up the superfluous moisture, and is of a wonderful thickness when the Woman is with Child, but else very compact.

Also it sometimes happens, that when the Womb is narrow, and the Child great, or a Mole bred together with the Child, with mighty pain in Child-bearing, not only the thick, but also the thin substance of the Womb with its Membranes is broken, and the child breaks out with its Head, Feet, and Hands, wheresoever there is way made into the Ab∣domen, and sometimes it falls down with its whole Body upon the Mo∣thers Bowels.

The Womb hath a numerous company of vessels, of which the Veins which accompany the Arteries on the upper part of it, descend from the vessels which prepare the Seed; the middle and inferior parts are supplied from the Hypogastricks, which creeping upwards again, joyn themselves by inosculations to the fore mentioned vessels; the Nerves which come to the superior part of the Womb, are the extream bran∣ches of the costal Nerves of the sixt pair; the middle and inferior part is supplied from the Os Sacrum.

Not only age, but also the Sports of Venus and breeding Children alters the bigness of the Womb: the intertexed flesh, and the plenty of Blood flowing thither, alters the cold and dry temper of the Membranes, which is so plentiful, that it administer nourishment to the Child, and flows out monthly at other times: Its scituation is in the lower Regi∣on of the Abdomen, where by the concourse of the Os Sacrum, Ilium, Cox∣endix, and Pubis, the Pelvis is framed, and for this intent it is larger in Women, than it is in Men, and gives way about the Os Sacrum, and Pu∣bis (though the Ligaments be very strong) in the time of travail; for∣ward it is joyned to the Bladder and the Os Pubis by the help of the Peri∣tonaeum, backwards with the right Gut

Above it hath singular Ligaments and very strong, but loose, least they should be detrimented by the swelling of the Belly when the Wo∣man is with Child; the first of these which is in the sides, seems to be a stretching out of the Peritonaeum, it is Membranous, and broad, so that it bends the Tubae, Testicles, and womb, to the Os Ilium, and is like the wing of a Bat, or Flitter mouse; this being immoderatly loosned, or broken by violence, the bottom of the womb falls down upon the Neck, or else into one of the groynes.

The other Ligament is round and Nervous, produced forwards from both sides of the Bottom, and having pierced the Peritonaeum and joyned it self to the Tendons of the Muscles of the Abdomen, above the Os Pubis, it dilates its self into a Membrane, joyns its self to the Clysteris, and loosly binds the bottom of the Womb to the foreparts; but indeed this round worm like Body is something else besides a bare Ligament, for if you diligently mark its structure it consists of a double Membrane, even as the Womb it self doth: it takes its original at the bottom of the Womb, where the Tubae and Testicles are: It is porous within, and to∣wards the end it is evidently hollow, and moist, with a watry Seed in such Women as die a violent death, and therefore it is more probable that this Worm-like vessel, when the mouth of the Womb is shut, gives passage to the Seminal Matter from the Testicles to the Neck of the Womb, and casts out excrements by those passages from both Groyns.

The office of the Womb is to receive the Seed, which is the principal of Generation, to keep and cherish it being received, and to bring forth the child into the world, all which it doth by its proper faculty: this will appear more cleerly if we consider the parts of the womb di∣stinctly.

It is divided into the bottom, the Neck, the passage, the extremi∣ty of which is the Womans Privities. The uppermost part of the Womb is called the Bottom; it is thicker and harder in those that are not great with child, the hand will easily grasp the bigness of it: out∣wardly it resembles the form of a Guord, being rather compressed than exactly round, if the Woman hath never been with Child; it hath a small Cavity within, and but one, which is divided into the right and left by a very small line; and yet in this secret lit∣tle shop, the Eternall Creator of all things begins and furnisheth

the admirable Structure of Man, only by a few drops of Seed.

Where the Womb begins to grow narrower, that is called the neck, and this usually Authors confound with the passage: in this is the Ori∣fice of the Womb, called internal, very smal; it is broadish in Virgins and Women which never had child, but round in such as have; this o∣pens to receive the Seed, and shuts close when it is received, and it stret∣cheth to an extream wideness to give passage to the Child.

To the bottom of the Neck is joyned the passage which is usually cal∣led the Neck of the Womb; it is a soft and loose channel with unequal wrinkles, that so it may the better give intromission to the Yard of Man, and extromission to the Child; at the end of it, on the forepart, it re∣ceives the neck of the Bladder; behind it is strongly bound to the Sphin∣cter of the right Cut.

The remainder of it is terminated in the Privities, in which the two lips are external, then the fleshy and soft productions which Authors call Nymphae and Alae; by these it is defended from external injuries: between these Alae is the Clystoris, a small round Body, made up of two Nervous portions, spongy within; it is endewed with two Muscles on both sides, they are very small, but their office is the same with those that dilates the passage in males; it hath plenty of vessels of all sorts, and is very exquisite in sence, that so by tickling it may cause pleasure in the act of Copulation.

Its unprofitable excrement (which the Arabians call Endemium, the Egyptians, Malum) which sticks out immoderately in young Girls, they cut off and scar: Under the Clystoris toward the internal part of the passage is the passage of Urine, which is short in Women, and hath a smal Caruncle to defend it from cold.

Such Virgins as keep themselves from playing the wantons with themselves, from the use of Venus and other external injuries, have a fleshy skin that covers the passage, guarded with Caruncles, which Anci∣ents called Hymen; it hath a cleft in the middle through which the Terms monthly flow, the form of which quite ceaseth after they have had to do with a Man and born Children; this as it is in Infants, and such Virgins as are not Marriagable, we give to the view of such as have chast minds in the fift and seventh Scheam of the next Table. In these, whatsoever is extended upwards by the sides from the inferior angle of the Privities, contains the cleft, and is a laying open of the internal tuni∣cle of the passage, which is Membranous with many very smal Veins and Arteries, which in Virgins makes up that fleshy circle like a flower; it is more fleshy in some than it is in other some, so that it represents the form of two Caruncles: It is commonly thin, and the weaker by reason of the defluxions of humors, so that it is broken without much ado. Two fleshy Productions like mirtle Leaves are neer this skin, or else like Almonds, which make the passage the narrower in Virgins, by which, the Caruncle which compasseth about the passage of the Urine is seen.

These things by the Law of Nature being thus constituted, Nature be∣ing

careful for the defence of Virginity, sometimes frames another thin skin from the inferior angle of the Privities and the sides, which is stret∣ched cross the chink like a zone, neither gives it any passage save only neer the passage of Urine, where it is loose and severed from the parts of the Privities: This, men very skilful in Anatomy, have formerly descri∣bed for the Hymen; this is but in few, and many Midwives tear it away for an unprofitable excrement: See its form in the sixt Figure of the fol∣lowing Table.

Place here the Table of the seventh Chapter, which hath the Number 7. at the corner of the brass Plate.

[illustration] Human anatomical diagrams

[illustration]

AN EXPLICATION OF THE TABLE OF THE SEVENTH CHAPTER.

This Table shews the Genitals of Women: First of all in their Natural Scituation; then their several Parts out of their Scituation; Lastly, the Hymen and Zone.

FIG. I.

• a The right preparing Vessels.
• b The left preparing Vessels.
• c A portion of the right Gut.
• d The bottom of the Womb sticking up above the Bladder.
• e The Bladder.

FIG. II.

• A The right Glandulae renalis.
• B The left Glandulae renalis.
• CC The Kindneys on both sides.
• DD The right emulgent veins.
• EEE The right emulgent arteries.
• FF The trunk of the Vena Cava, divided in∣to the right and left Iliack branches.
• G The left emulgent vein.
• H The left emulgent arteries.
• II The right Spermatical vein.
• K The right Spermatical artery.
• L The left Spermatical artery.
• M The left Spermatical vein.
• NN The trunk of the great artery divided into the right and left Iliack.
• OO Womens Testicles.
• PP A portion of the broad Ligament.
• QQQQ The Tubae of the Womb, depressed on both sides with the Ligament, that so the Testi∣cles may appear.
• R The bottom of the Womb.
• SS The round Ligaments of the Womb cut off below.
• T The neck of the womb.
• Ʋ In the right side, the Hypogastrick vein distributed in the Womb.
• Ʋ In the left side, the Hypogastrick artery distributed in the Womb.
• X In the right side, the Hypogastrick artery distributed in the Womb.
• X In the left side, the Hypogastrick vein distributed in the Womb.
• Y The passage of the Womb.
• Z The Bladder depressed above the Privities.
• aa A portion of the Ureters cut off about the Bladder.
• bb A portion of the Ʋreters descending cut off about the reins.
• cc The preparing Vessels dilated about the te∣sticles.
• dd The Vasa deferentia.

FIG. III.

• AA The bottom of the Womb dissected cross.
• BB The cavity of the bottom.
• C The neck of the Womb.
• D The hole in the neck of the Womb of a Woman which hath brought forth.
• EE The wrinkled face of the passage of the womb.
• FF The round Ligaments of the Womb cut off underneath.

FIG. IV.

• A The right testicle.
• BB The right Tubae depressed.
• C The left testicle.
• bb The passages of the testicles of the womb.
• DD The left Tubae of the Womb.
• E The bottom of the womb.
• FF the round Ligaments of the womb cut off below.
• G The Bladder inserted to the passage of the womb and stretched upwa••ds.
• HH Portions of the Ureters.
• II The two musculous parts of the Clytoris.
• K The body it self of the Clytois.

FIG. V.

• A The head of the Clytoris stiking out under the skin.
• BB The external Lips of the Pivities drawn aside.
• CC The Alae or Nymphae drawn aside.
• D The Caruncle of the passage of Ʋme besides (a)
• EE The two fleshy prodixtions like Myrtle Leaves.
• FF The Membranous containing of the chink.

FIG. VI.

• A The Membrane drawn cross the Privities vulgarly taken for the Hymo.

FIG. VII.

• A The Privities of a yong Girl, ••n which the signification is the same as in ••he fift figure.

[illustration]