Women
are not nearly so likely to conceive during the week before a monthly
as during the week immediately after.
are not nearly so likely to conceive during the week before a monthly
as during the week immediately after.
Knowlton - Fruits of Philosophy- A Treatise on the Population Question
They become parents, and the sum of
human misery is increased by their doing so. But it is folly to expect
that we can induce such persons to live the lives of Shakers. Nor is it
necessary; all that duty requires of them is to refrain from becoming
parents. Who can estimate the beneficial effect which a rational
moral restraint may thus have on the health and beauty and physical
improvement of our race throughout future generations? "
Let us now turn our attention to the case of unmarried youth.
"Almost all young persons, on reaching the age of maturity, desire to
marry. That heart must be very cold, or very isolated, that does not
find some object on which to bestow its affections. Thus, early marriage
would be almost universal did not prudential consideration interfere.
The young man thinks, 'I cannot marry yet; I cannot support a family.
I must make money first, and think of a matrimonial settlement
afterwards. '
"And so he goes to making money, fully and sincerely resolved in a few
years to share it with her whom he now loves. But passions are strong
and temptations great. Curiosity, perhaps, introduces him into the
company of those poor creatures whom society first reduces to a
dependence on the most miserable of mercenary trades, and then curses
for being what she has made them. There his health and moral feelings
are alike made shipwreck. The affections he had thought to treasure up
for their first object are chilled by dissipation and blunted by excess.
He scarcely retains a passion but avarice. Years pass on--years of
profligacy and speculation--and his wish is accomplished, his fortune is
made. Where now are the feelings and resolve of his youth?
'Like the dew on the mountain,
Like the foam on the river,
Like the bubbles on the fountain,
They are gone--and forever. '
"He is a man of pleasure, a man of the world. He laughs at the romance
of his youth, and marries a fortune. If gaudy equipage and gay parties
confer happiness, he is happy. But if these be only the sunshine on
the stormy sea below, he is a victim to that system of morality which
forbids a reputable connection until the period when provision has been
made for a large expected family. Had he married the first object of his
choice, and simply delayed becoming a father until his prospects seemed
to warrant it, how different might have been his lot. Until men and
women are absolved from the fear of becoming parents, except when they
themselves desire it, they will ever form mercenary and demoralizing
connections, and seek in dissipation the happiness they might have found
in domestic life.
"I know that this, however common, is not a universal case. Sometimes
the heavy responsibilities of a family are incurred at all risks; and
who shall say how often a life of unremitting toil and poverty is the
consequence. Sometimes, if even rarely, the young mind does hold its
first resolves. The youth plods through years of cold celibacy and
solitary anxiety, happy if, before the best hours of his life are gone
and its warmest feelings withered, he may return to claim the reward of
his forbearance and his industry. But even in this comparatively happy
case, shall we count for nothing the years of ascetic sacrifice at which
after happiness is purchased? The days of youth are not too many, nor
its affections too lasting. We may, indeed, if a great object require
it, sacrifice the one and mortify the other. But is this, in itself,
desirable? Does not wisdom tell us that such a sacrifice is a dead
loss--to the warm-hearted often a grievous one? Does not wisdom bid us
temperately enjoy the springtimes of life, 'while the evil day come not,
nor the years draw nigh, when we shall say we have no pleasure in them? '
"Let us say, then, if we will, that the youth who thus sacrifices the
present for the future, chooses wisely between the two evils, profligacy
and asceticism. This is true. But let us not imagine the lesser evil
to be good. It is _not_ good for man to be alone. It is for no man or
woman's happiness or benefit that they should be condemned to Shakerism.
It is a violence done to the feelings and an injury to the character.
A life of rigid celibacy, though infinitely preferable to a life of
dissipation, is yet fraught with many evils. Peevishness, restlessness,
vague longings and instability of character, are amongst the least of
these. The mind is unsettled, and the judgment warped. Even the very
instinct which is thus mortified assumes an undue importance, and
occupies a portion of the thoughts which does not of right or nature
belong to it, and which, during a life of satisfied affection, it would
not obtain. "
In many instances, the genital organs are rendered so irritable by the
repletion to which unnatural continency gives rise, and by the much
thinking caused by such repletion, as to induce a disease known to
medical men by the name of _Gonorrhoea Dormientium_. It consists in
an emission or discharge of the semen during sleep. This discharge is
immediately excited in most instances by a lascivious dream, but such
dream is caused by the repletion and irritability of the genital organs.
It is truly astonishing to what a degree of mental anguish the disease
gives rise in young men. They do not understand the nature, or rather,
the cause of it. They think it depends on a weakness--indeed, the
disease is often called a "seminal weakness"--and that the least
gratification in a natural way would but serve to increase it.
Their anxiety about it weakens the whole system. This weakness they
erroneously attribute to the discharges; they think themselves totally
disqualified for entering into or enjoying the married state. Finally,
the genital and mental organs act and react upon each other so
perniciously as to cause a degree of nervousness, debility, emaciation
and melancholy--in a word, wretchedness that sets description at
defiance. Nothing is so effectual in curing this diseased state of
a body and mind in young men as marriage. All restraint, fear and
solicitude should be removed.
"Inasmuch, then, as the scruples of incurring heavy responsibilities
deter from forming moral connections and encourage intemperance and
prostitution, the knowledge which enables man to limit the number of his
offspring would, in the present state of things, save much unhappi-ness
and prevent many crimes. Young persons sincerely attached to each other,
and who might wish to marry, should marry early, merely resolving not
to become parents until prudence permitted it. The young man, instead
of solitary toil and vulgar dissipation, would enjoy the society and the
assistance of her he has chosen as his companion; and the best years of
life, whose pleasures never return, would not be squandered in riot, nor
lost through mortification. "*
* The passages quoted are from Robert Dale Owen's "Moral
Physiology. "
CHAPTER II. ON GENERATION
I hold the following to be important and undeniable troths: That every
man has a natural right both to receive and convey a knowledge of all
the facts and discoveries of every art and science, excepting such only
as may be secured to some particular person or persons by copyright or
patent; that a physical truth in its general effect cannot be a moral
evil; that no fact in physics or in morals ought to be concealed from
the inquiring mind.
Some may make a misuse of knowledge, but that is their fault; and it is
not right that one person should be deprived of knowledge, of spirits,
of razors, or of anything else which is harmless in itself and may be
useful to him, because another may misuse it.
The subject on generation is not only interesting as a branch of
science, but it is so connected with the happiness of mankind that it is
highly important in a practical point of view. Such, to be sure, is
the custom of the age, that it is not considered a proper subject to
investigate before a popular assembly, nor is it proper to attend the
calls of nature in a like place; yet they must and ought to be attended
to, for the good, the happiness of mankind require it; so, too, for like
reason, the subject of generation ought to be investigated until it be
rightly understood by all people, but at such opportunities as the
good sense of every individual will easily decide to be proper. This,
I presume to say, not simply upon the abstract principle that
all knowledge of Nature's workings is useful, and the want of it
disadvantageous, but from the known moral fact that ignorance of this
process has in many instances proved the cause of a lamentable "mishap,"
and more especially as it is essential to the attainment of the great
advantage, which it is the chief object of this work to bestow upon
mankind.
People generally, as it was the case with physicians until late years,
entertain a very erroneous idea of what takes place in the conception.
Agreeably to this idea the "check" which I consider far preferable
to any other, would not be effectual, as would be obvious to all.
Consequently, entertaining this idea, people would not have due
confidence in it. Hence, it is necessary to correct a long-held and
widely extended error. But this I cannot expect to do by simply saying
it is an error. Deeply rooted and hitherto undisputed opinions are not
so easily eradicated. If I would convince any one that the steps in one
of the most recondite processes of nature are not such as he has always
believed, it will greatly serve my purpose to show what these steps are.
I must first prepare him to be reasoned with, and then reason the
matter all over with him. I must point out the facts which disprove his
opinion, and show that my own is unattended with difficulties.
But what can be more obvious than that it is absolutely impossible
to explain any process or function of the animal economy, so as to be
understood, before the names of the organs which perform this function
have been defined, that is, before the organs themselves have been
described. Now it is well known to every anatomist, and indeed it may
be obvious to all, that in describing any organ or system of organs,
we must always begin with some external and known parts, and proceed
regularly, step by step, to the internal and unknown. As in arithmetic,
"everything must be understood as you go along. "*
* This is an Americanism, which appears to us to convey a
false idea. If it refers to the cases used as illustrations,
Dr. Knowlton is more sparing in his use of them than either
Dr. Bull or Dr. Chavasse. --Publishers' Note.
Fully to effect the objects of this work, it is, therefore, a matter of
necessity that I give an anatomical description of certain parts--even
external parts--which some, but imagine what I have just said, might
think it useless to mention. It is not to gratify the idle curiosity of
the light-minded that this book is written; it is for _utility_ in the
broad and truly philosophical sense of the term; nay, farther, it shall
with the exception of here and there a little spicing*, have confined
to _practical utility_. I shall, therefore, endeaver to treat of the
subject in this chapter so as to be understood, without giving any
description of the male organs of generation; though I hold it an
accomplishment for one be able to speak of those organs, as diseases
often put them under the necessity of doing, without being compelled use
low and vulgar language. But I must briefly describe the female organs;
in doing which I must, of course, speak as do other anatomists and
physiologists; and whoever objects to this will discover more
affectation and prudery than good sense and good will to mankind.
The adipose, or fatty matter, immediately over the share bone, forms
a considerable prominence in females, which, at the age of puberty, is
covered with hair, as in males. This prominence is called Mons Veneris.
The exterior orifice commences immediately below this. On each side of
this orifice is a prominence continued from the mons veneris, which
is largest above and gradually diminishes as it descends. These two
prominences are called the Labia Externa, or external lips. Near the
latter end of pregnancy they become somewhat enlarged and relaxed, so
that they sustain little or no injury during parturition. Just within
the upper or anterior commissure, formed by the junction of these lips,
a little round oblong body is situated. The body is called the clitoris.
Most of its length is bound down, as it were, pretty closely to the
bone; and it is of very variable size in different females. Instances
have occurred where it was so enlarged as to allow the female to have
venereal commerce with others; and in Paris this fact was once made a
public exhibition to the medical faculty. Women thus formed appear to
partake in their general form of the male character, and are called
hermaphrodites. The idea of human beings, called hermaphrodites, which
could be either father or mother, is, doubtless, erroneous. The clitoris
is analogous in its structure to the penis, and like it, is exquisitely
sensitive, being, as it is supposed, the principal seat of pleasure. It
is subject to erection or distension, like the penis, from like causes.
The skin which lines the internal surface of the external lips is folded
in such manner as to form two flat bodies, the exterior edges of which
are convex. They are called the nymphse. They extend downward, one on
each side, from the clitoris to near the middle of the external orifice,
somewhat diverging from each other. Their use is not very evident The
orifice of the urethra (the canal, short in females, which leads to the
bladder) is situated an inch or more farther inward than the clitoris,
and is a little protuberant.
Passing by the external lips, the clitoris, the nymphse and the orifice
of the urethra, we come to the membrane called the hymen. It is situated
just at, or a trifle behind the orifice of the urethra. It is stretched
across the passage, and were it a complete septum, it would close up the
anterior extremity of that portion of the passage which is called the
vagina. But the instances in which the septum or partition is complete
are very rare, there being, in almost all cases, an aperture either in
its center, or frequently in its anterior edge, giving the membrane the
form of a crescent Through this aperture passes the menstrual fluid.
Sometimes, however, this septum is complete, and the menstrual fluid
is retained month after month, until appearances and symptoms much
like those of pregnancy are produced, giving rise to perhaps unjust
suspicions. Such cases require the simple operation of dividing the
hymen. In many instances the hymen is very imperfect, insomuch that some
have doubted whether it is to be found in the generality of virgins.
Where it exists it is generally ruptured in the first intercourse of
the sexes, and the female is said to lose her virginity. In some
rare instances it is so very strong as not to be ruptured by such
intercourse, and the nature of the difficulty not being understood, the
husband has sued for a divorce. But everything may be put to rights by
a slight surgical operation. The parts here described are among those
called the external parts of generation.
The internal organs of generation consist in the female of the Vagina,
the Uterus, the Ovaries and their appendages.
The Vagina is a membranous canal commencing at the hymen and extending
to the uterus. It is a little curved, and extends backward and upward
between the bladder, which lies before and above it, and that extreme
portion of the bowels called the rectum, which lies behind it. The
coat of membrane which lines the internal surface of the vagina forms a
number of transverse ridges. These are to be found only in the lower
or anterior half of the vagina, and they do not extend all round the
vagina, but are situated on its anterior and posterior sides, while
their lateral sides are smooth. I mention these ridges because a
knowledge of them may lead to a more effectual use of one of the checks
to be made known hereafter.
The uterus or womb is also situated between the bladder and the rectum,
but above the vagina. Such is its shape that it has been compared to
a pear with a long neck. There is, of course, considerable difference
between the body and the neck, the first being twice as broad as the
last. Each of these parts is somewhat flattened. In subjects of mature
age, who have been pregnant, the whole of the uterus is about two inches
and a half in length, and more than an inch and a half in breadth at the
broadest part of the body. It is near an inch in thickness. The neck of
the uterus is situated downward, and may be said to be inserted into
the upper extremity of the vagina. It extends down into the vagina the
better part of an inch. In the uterus is a cavity which approaches the
triangular form, and from which a canal passes down through the neck of
the uterus into the vagina. This cavity is so small that its sides are
almost in contact So that the uterus is a thick, firm organ for so small
a one. Comparing the cavity of the uterus to a triangle, we say the
upper side or line of this triangle is transverse with respect to the
body, and the other two lines pass downward and inward, so that they
would form an angle below, did they not before they meet take a turn
more directly downward to form the canal just mentioned. In each of the
upper angles there is an orifice of such size as to admit of a hog's
bristle. These little orifices are the mouths of two tubes, called the
Fallopian tubes, of which more will be said presently. The canal which
passes through the neck of the uterus, connecting the cavity of
this organ with that of the vagina, is about a quarter of an inch in
diameter. It is different from other ducts, for it seems to be a part
of the cavity from which it extends, inasmuch as when the cavity of the
uterus is enlarged in the progress of pregnancy, this canal is gradually
converted into a part of that cavity.
The lower extremity of the neck of the uterus is irregularly convex and
tumid. The orifice of the canal in it is oval, and so situated that it
divides the convex surface of the lower extremity of the neck in two
portions, which are called the lips of the uterus. The anterior is
thicker than the posterior. The orifice itself is called _os tincæ_ or
_os uteri_, or in English, the mouth of the womb. When the parts are in
a weak, relaxed state, the mouth or neck of the uterus is quite low, and
in almost all oases it may be reached by a finger introduced into the
vagina, especially by a second person, who carries the hand behind.
The Ovaries are two bodies of a flattened or oval form, one of which is
situated on each side of the uterus at a little distance from it, and
about as high up as where the uterus becomes narrow to form its neck.
The longest diameter of the ovarium is about an inch. Each ovarium has a
firm coat of membrane. In those who have not been pregnant, it contains
from ten to twenty _vesicles_, which are little round bodies, formed of
a delicate membrane, and filled with a transparent fluid. Some of
these vesicles are situated so near the surface of the ovarium as to
be prominent on its surface. They are of different sizes, the largest
nearly a quarter of a inch in diameter. *
* The vesicles here mentioned are the so-called Graafian
vesicles, or ovisacs, each of which contains in its interior
a little ovum or egg. In the human female the ovum is
extremely minute, so as only to be visible with the aid of a
lens. The Graafian vesicles are not limited to a certain
small number, as was formerly thought, but continue to be
formed in the ovaries, and to discharge at intervals mature
ova during the whole of the fruitful period. --G. R.
In those in whom conception has ever taken place, some of these vesicles
are removed, and in their place a cicatrix or scar is formed which
continues through life. However, the number of cicatrices does not
always correspond with the number of conceptions. They often exceed
it, and are sometimes found where conception has not been known to take
place. The Fallopian Tubes are two canals four or five inches in length,
proceeding from the upper angles of the cavity of the uterus, in a
transverse direction in respect to the body. Having so proceeded
for some distance they turn downward toward the ovaries. At their
commencement in the uterus they are very small, but they enlarge as much
as they progress. The large ends, which hang loose, terminate in open
mouths, the margins of which consist of fimbriated processes, and nearly
touch the ovaria.
We are now prepared to treat of conception. Yet, as menstruation is
closely connected with it, and as a knowledge of many things concerning
menstruation may contribute much to the well-being of females, for
whom this work is at least as much designed as for males, I shall first
briefly treat of this subject.
Menstruation. --When females arrive at the age of puberty they begin to
have a discharge once every month, by way of the vagina, of the color of
blood. This discharge is termed the menses. To have it is to menstruate.
The age at which menstruation commences varies with different
individuals, and also in different climates. The warmer the climate
the earlier it commences and ceases. In temperate climates it
generally commences at the age of fourteen or fifteen, and it ceases at
forty-four, or a little later. *
Whenever it commences the girl acquires a more womanly appearance. It
is a secretion of the uterus, or, in other words, the minute vessels
distributed to the inner coat of uterus, select as it were, from the
blood, and pour out in a gradual manner the materials of this fluid. It
has one of the properties, color, of blood, but it does not coagulate,
or separate into different parts like blood, and cannot properly be
called blood. **
* Dr. Chavasse, on p. 94 of his "Advice to a Wife"
published by W. H. Smith & Son gives instances of very
early menstruation and consequent fecundity. --Publishers'
note,
** "The menstrual discharge," says Dr. Kirkes, "consists of
blood effused from the inner surface of the uterus, and
mixed with mucus from the uterus, vagina, and the external
parts of the generative apparatus. Being diluted by this
admixture, the menstrual blood coagulates less perfectly
than ordinary blood; and the frequent acidity of the vaginal
mucus tends still further to diminish its coagulability. "--
Handbook of Physiology, 8th ed. , p. 727, 1874. --G. R.
When this discharge is in all respects regular, it amounts in most
females to six or eight ounces, and from two to four days' continuance.
During its continuance the women is said to be unwell, or out of order.
Various unpleasant feelings are liable to attend it; but when it is
attended with severe pain, as it not infrequently is, it becomes a
disease, and the woman is not likely to conceive until it is cured.
During the existence of the "turns," or "monthlies," as they are often
called, indigestible food, dancing in warm rooms, sudden exposure
to cold or wet, and mental agitations, should be avoided as much as
possible. The "turns" do not continue during pregnancy, nor nursing,
unless nursing be continued after the "turns" recommence. Some women, it
is true, are subject to a slight hemorrhage that sometimes occurs with
considerable regularity during pregnancy, and which has led them to
suppose they have their turns at such times; but it is not so; the
discharge at such times is real blood. *
* Consult on the whole of this Dr. Chavasse's book, pp. 91-
101, where full details are given. --Publishers' note.
The use of the menstrual discharge seems to be to prepare the uterine
system for conception. For females do not become pregnant before
they commence, nor after they cease having turns; nor while they are
suppressed by some disease, by cold or by nursing. Some credible women,
however, have said that they become pregnant while nursing, without
having had any turn since their last lying-in. It is believed that in
these oases they had some discharge, colorless, perhaps, which they did
not notice, but which answered the purposes of the common one.
Women
are not nearly so likely to conceive during the week before a monthly
as during the week immediately after. * But although the use of this
secretion seems to be to prepare for conception, it is not to be
inferred that the reproductive instinct ceases at the "turn of life,"
or when the woman ceases to menstruate. On the contrary, it is said that
this passion often increases at this period, and continues in a greater
or less degree to an extreme age.
* See, however, Dr. Bull's "Hints to Mothers," pp. 31-58,
and 127-129 (published by Longmans, Green & Co. )--
Publishers' note.
Conception. --The part performed by the male in the reproduction of the
species consists in exciting the organism of the female, and depositing
the semen in the vagina. Before I inquire what takes place in the
females I propose to speak of the semen.
This fluid, which is secreted by the testicles, may be said to possess
three kinds of properties, physical, chemical, physiological. Its
physical properties are known to every one--it is a thickish, nearly
opaque fluid, of a peculiar odor, saltish taste, etc. As to its chemical
properties, it is found by analysis to consist of 900 parts of water,
60 of animal muscilage, 10 of soda, 30 of phosphate of lime. Its
physiological property is that of exciting the female genital organs in
a peculiar manner.
When the semen is examined by microscope, there can be distinguished a
multitude of small animalculæ, which appear to have a rounded head and a
long tail. These animalculæ move with a certain degree of rapidity. They
appear to avoid the light and to delight in the shade. Leeuwenhoek, if
not the discoverer of the seminal animalculse, was the first who brought
the fact of their existence fully before the public. With respect to
their size, he remarked that ten thousand of them might exist in a space
not larger than a grain of sand. They have a definite figure, and are
obviously different from the animalculse found in any other fluid. *
* See Dr. Carpenter's "Animal Physiology," p. 558 (published
by H. G. Bonn); Nichol's "Human Physiology," pp. 253-255
(published by Trubner & Co. )--Publishers' note.
Leeuwenhoek believed them to be the beginnings of future animals--that
they are of different sexes, upon which depends the future sex of the
foetus. Be this as it may, it appears to be admitted on all hands that
the animalculæ are present in the semen of the various species of
male animals, and that they cannot be detected when either from age or
disease the animals are rendered sterile. "Hence," says Bostock, "we can
scarcely refuse our assent to the position that these animalculæ are
in some way or other instrumental to the production of the foetus. "
The secretion of the semen commences at the age of puberty. Before this
period the testicles secrete a viscid, transparent fluid, which has
never been analyzed, but which is doubtless essentially different from
semen. The revolution which the whole economy undergoes at this period,
such as the tone of the voice, and development of hairs, the beard, the
increase of the muscles and bones, etc. , is intimately connected with
the testicles and the secretion of this fluid. * "Eunuchs preserve the
same form as in childhood; their voice is effeminate, they have no
beard, their disposition is timid; and finally their physical and moral
character very nearly resembles that of females. Nevertheless, many of
them take delight in venereal intercourse, and give themselves up with
ardor to a connection which must always prove unfruitful. "**
* Nichol's "Human Physiology," pp. 256-257.
--Publishers' note
** Magendic's Physiology. --Author's note.
The part performed by the female in the reproduction of the species is
far more complicated than that performed by the male. It consists, in
the first instance, in providing a substance which, in connection
with the male secretion, is to constitute the foetus; in furnishing a
suitable situation in which the foetus may be developed; in affording
due nourishment for its growth; in bringing it forth, and afterward
furnishing it with food especially adapted to the digestive organs of
the young animal. Some parts of this process are not well understood,
and such variety of hypotheses have been proposed to explain them that
Drelincourt, who lived in the latter part of the seventeenth century, is
said to have collected two hundred and sixty hypotheses of generation.
It ought to be known that women have conceived when the semen was merely
applied to the parts anterior to the hymen, as the internal surface
of the external lips, the nymphæ, etc. This is proved by the fact that
several cases of pregnancy have occurred when the hymen was entire. The
fact need not surprise us, for, agreeable to the theory of absorption,
we have to account for it only to suppose that some of the absorbent
vessels are situated anterior to the hymen--a supposition by no means
unreasonable.
There are two peculiarities of the human species respecting conception
which I will notice. First, unlike other animals they are liable, and
for what has been proved to the contrary, equally liable--to conceive
at all seasons of the year. Second, a woman rarely, if ever, conceives
until after having several sexual connections; nor does one connection
in fifty cause conception in the matrimonial state, where the husband
and wife live together uninterruptedly. Public women rarely conceive,
owing probably to a weakened state of the genital system, induced by too
frequent and promiscuous intercourse.
It is universally agreed, that some time after a fruitful connection,
a vesicle (two in case of twins) of one or the other ovary becomes so
enlarged that it bursts forth from the ovary and takes the name of
ovum, which is taken up, or rather received, as it bursts forth, by the
fimbriated extremity of the Fallopian tube, and is then conducted along
the tube into the uterus, to the inner surface of which it attaches
itself. *
* Since Dr. Knowlton's work was written, the very important
fact has been discovered that ova are periodically
discharged from the ovaries in the human female and other
animals, not in consequence of fruitful connection having
taken place, as was formerly believed, but quite
independently of intercourse with the male. Such a discharge
of ova occurs in the lower animals at the time of heat or
rut, and in women during menstruation. At each menstrual
period, a Graafian vesicle becomes enlarged, bursts, and
lets the ovum which it contains escape into the Fallopian
tube, along which it passes to the uterus. "It has long been
known," says Dr. Kirke, "that in the so-called oviparous
animals, the separation of ova from the ovary may take place
independently of impregnation by the male, or even of sexual
union. And it is now established that a like maturation and
discharge of ova, independently of coition, occurs in
Mammalia, the periods at which the matured ova are separated
from the ovaries and received into the Fallopian tubes being
indicated in the lower Mammalia by the phenomena of _heat_
or _rut_; in the human female by the phenomena of
_menstruation_. Sexual desire manifests itself in the human
female to a greater degree at these periods, and in the
female of mammiferous animals at no other time. If the union
of the sexes takes place, the ovum may be fecundated, and if
no union occur, it perishes. From what has been said it may
therefore be concluded that the two states, heat and
menstruation, are analogous, and that the essential
accompaniment of both is the maturation and extrusion of
ova. "--"Handbook of Physiology," page 724. --G. R.
Here it becomes developed into a full grown foetus, and is brought forth
about forty-two weeks from the time of conception by a process termed
parturition. But one grand question is, how the semen operates itself,
or any part thereof reaches the ovary, and if so, in what way it is
conveyed to them. It was long the opinion that the semen was ejected
into the uterus in the act of coition, and that it afterward, by some
unknown means, found its way into and along the Fallopian tubes to the
ovary. But there are several facts which weigh heavily against this
opinion, and some that entirely forbid it. In the first place, there are
several well attested instances in which impregnation took place while
the hymen remained entire, where the vagina terminated in the rectum,
where it was so contracted by a cicatrix as not to admit the penis. In
all these cases the semen could not have been lodged anywhere near
the mouth of the uterus, much less ejected into it. Secondly, it has
followed a connection where from some defect in the male organs, as the
urethra terminating some inches behind the end of the penis, and it is
clear that the semen could not have been injected into the uterus, nor
even near its mouth. Third, the neck of the unimpregnated uterus is so
narrow as merely to admit a probe, and is filled with a thick tenacious
fluid, which seemingly could not be forced away by any force which the
male organ possesses of ejecting the semen, even if the mouth of the
male urethra were in opposition with that of the uterus. But fourth, the
mouth of the uterus is by no means fixed. By various causes it is made
to assume various situations, and probably the mouth of the urethra
rarely comes in contact with it.
Fifth. "The tenacity of the male semen is such as renders its passage
through the small aperture in the neck of the uterus impossible, even by
a power of force much superior to that which we may rationally suppose
to reside in the male organs of generation. "
Sixth. "Harvey and DeGraaf dissected animals at almost every period
after coition for the express purpose of discovering the semen, but were
never able to detect the smallest vestige of it in the uterus in any one
instance. "*
* Dewees' Essay on Superfoetation. --Author's note.
Aware of the insurmountable objection to this view of the manner
in which the semen reaches the ovary, it has been supposed by some
physiologists that the semen is absorbed from the vagina into the great
circulating system, where it is mixed, of course, with the blood, and
goes the whole round of the circulation subject to the influence of
those causes which produce great changes in the latter fluid.
To this hypothesis it may be objected, that while there is no direct
evidence in support of it, it is exceedingly unreasonable, inasmuch
as we can scarcely believe that the semen can go the whole round of
circulation, and then find its way to the ovary in such a pure unaltered
state as the experiments of Spallanzani prove it must be in, that it may
impregnate.
A third set of theorists have maintained that an imperceptible
something, which they have called _aura seminalis_, passes from the
semen lodged in the vagina to the ovary, and excites those actions which
are essential to the development of an ovum. Others, again, have told us
that it is all done by sympathy. That neither the semen nor any volatile
part of it finds its way to the ovary; but that the semen excites the
parts with which it is in contact in a peculiar manner, and by the law
of animal economy, termed sympathy, or consent of parts, a peculiar
action commences in the ovary, by which an ovum is developed.
To both these conjectures it may be objected that they have no other
foundation but the supposed necessity of adopting them, to account for
the effect of impregnation; and, further, they "make no provision for
the formation of mules; for the peculiarities of, and likeness to,
parents, and for the propagation of predisposition to disease, from
parent to child; for the production of mulattoes," etc.
A fifth, and to me far more satisfactory view of the subject than any
other, is that advanced by our distinguished countryman, Dr. Dewees, of
Philadelphia. It appears to harmonize with all known facts relating
to the conception and something from analogy may also be drawn in its
favor. It is this, that there is a set of absorbent vessels, leading
directly from the inner surface of the _labia externa_ and the vagina,
to the ovaries, the whole office of which vessels is to absorb the semen
and convey it to the ovaries. * I do not know that these vessels have
yet been fully discovered, but in a note on the sixteenth page of his
"Essays on Various Subjects," the doctor says: "The existence of these
vessels is now rendered almost certain, as Dr. Gartner, of Copenhagen,
has discovered a duct leading from the ovary to the vagina. "
* This view is not held at the present day. The commonly
received doctrine now is that the seminal fluid enters the
uterus, whether during the intercourse or after it, and
passes along the Fallopian tubes to the ovaries; and that
fecundation takes place at some point of this course, most
frequently in the tubes, but also at times in the ovary
itself, or even, perhaps, in the uterus. It is essentially
necessary for fecundation that the spermatozoa should come
into actual contact with the ovum. "That the spermatozoa
make their way toward the ovarium, and fecundate the ovum
either before it entirely quits the ovisac or very shortly
afterward," says Dr. Carpenter, "appears to be the general
rule in regard to the Mammalia; and their power of movement
must obviously be both vigorous and long continued to enable
them to traverse so great an extent of mucous membrane,
especially when it is remembered that they ascend in
opposition to the direction of the ciliary movement of the
epithelial cells and to the downward peristaltic action of
the Fallopian tubes. * * * There can be no doubt that it is
the contact of the spermatozoa with the ovum, and in the
changes which occur as the immediate consequence of that
contact, that the act of fecundation essentially consists. "
--"Principles of Human Physiology," 8th ed. , p. 961,1876. --G. R.
Another question of considerable moment relating to generation is from
which parent are the first rudiments of the foetus derived.
The earliest hypothesis with which we are acquainted, and which has
received the support of some of the most eminent of the moderns,
ascribes the original formation of the foetus to the combination of
particles of matter derived from each of the parents. This hypothesis
naturally presents itself to the mind as the obvious method of
explaining the necessity for the cooperation of the two sexes, and the
resemblance in external form, and even in mind and character, which the
offspring often bears to the male parent. "The principal objections,"
says Bostock, "to his hypothesis, independent of the want of any direct
proof of a female seminal fluid, are of two descriptions, those which
depend upon the supposed impossibility of unorganized matter forming
an organized being, and those which are derived from observations and
experiments of Haller and Spallanzani, which they brought forward in
support of their theory of pre-existent germs. "
In relation to these objections I remark, first those whose experience
has been with hale females, I suspect, can have no doubt but that the
female organism increases like that of the male, until an emission of
fluid of some kind or other takes place. But whether this secretion may
properly be called semen, whether any part of it unites with the male
semen in forming the rudiments of the foetus, is another question. For
my part I am inclined to the opinion that it does not. * I rather regard
it as the result of exalted excitation, analogous to the increased
secretion of other organs from increased stimulation; and if it may be
for any object or use, as it probably is, it is that of affording
nature a means of relieving herself; or, in other words, of quieting the
venereal passion. If this passion, being once roused, could not by some
means or other be calmed, it would command by far too great a portion of
our thoughts, and with many constitutions the individuals, whether male
or female, could not conduct themselves with due decorum. One fact which
leads me to think that the female secretion in the act of coition is not
essential to impregnation is, that many females have conceived, if their
unbiased testimony may be relied on, when they experienced no pleasure.
In these cases it is more than probable that there was no orgasm, nor
any secretion or emission of fluid on the part of the female.
* With regard to this secretion in the female, which has
nothing of a seminal character, Dr. Carpenter observes: "Its
admixture with the male semen has been supposed to have some
connection with impregnation; but no proof whatever has been
given that any such admixture is necessary. "--"Human
Physiology," p. 991. --G. R.
As to the objection of the supposed impossibility of unorganized matter
forming an organized being, I do not believe such a thing takes place,
even if we admit that "the original formation of the foetus is a
combination of particles of matter derived from each of the parents. "
What do, or rather what ought we to mean by organized matter? Not,
surely, that it exhibits some obvious physical structure, unlike what is
to be found in inorganic matter, but that it exhibits phenomena, and of
course may be said to possess properties unlike any kind of inorganic
matter. Matter unites with matter in three ways, mechanically,
chemically and organically, and each mode of union gives rise to
properties peculiar to itself. When matter unites organically, the
substance or being so formed exhibits some phenomena essentially
different from what inorganic bodies exhibit. It is on this account that
we ascribe to organic bodies certain properties, which we call
physiological properties, such as contractility, sensibility, life, etc.
When, from any cause, these bodies have undergone such a change that
they no longer exhibit the phenomena peculiar to them, they are said to
have lost these properties, and to be dead. A substance need not possess
all the physiological properties of an animal of the higher orders to
entitle it to the name of an organized or living substance, nor need it
possess the physical property of solidity. The blood, as well as many of
the secretions, does several things, exhibits several phenomena, which
no mechanical or mere chemical combinations of matter do exhibit. We
must therefore ascribe to it certain physiological properties, and
regard it as an organized, a living fluid, as was contended by the
celebrated John Hunter. So with respect to the semen, it certainly
possesses physiological properties, one in particular peculiar to
itself, namely, the property of impregnating the female; and upon no
sound principle can it be regarded in any other light than as an
organized, and of course a living fluid. And if the female secretion or
any part of it unite with the male secretion in the formation of the
rudiments or the foetus in a different manner than any other substance
would, then it certainly has the property of doing so, whether we give
this property a name or not; and a regard to the soundest principles of
physiology compels us to class this property with the physiological or
vital, and of course to regard this secretion as an organized and living
fluid So, then, unorganized matter does not form an organized being,
admitting the hypothesis before us as correct.
That organized being should give rise to other organized beings under
favorable circumstances as to nourishment, warmth, etc. , is no more
wonderful than that fire should give rise to fire when air and fuel are
present. To be sure, there are some minute steps in the processes which
are not fully known to us; still, if they ever should be known, we
should unquestionably see that there is a natural cause for every one
of them; and that they are all consonant with certain laws of the animal
economy. We should see no necessity of attempting to explain the process
of generation by bringing to our aid, or rather to the darkening of
the subject, any imaginary principle, as the _visus formaticus_ of
Blumenbach.
As to the "observations and experiments of Haller and Spallanzani," I
think, with Dr. Bostock, that they weigh but little, if any, against the
theory before us. I shall not be at the labor of bringing them forward
and showing their futility as objections to this theory, for I am far
from insisting on the correctness of it; that is, I do not insist that
any part of the female secretion, during coition, unites with the male
semen in the formation of the rudiments of the foetus.
The second hypothesis or theory, I shall notice, as to the rudiments of
the foetus, is that of Leeuwenhoek, who regarded the seminal animalculse
of the male semen as the proper rudiments of the foetus, and thought
that the office of the female is to afford them a suitable receptacle
where they may be supported and nourished until they are able to exist
by the exercise of their own functions. This is essentially the view of
the subject which I intend to give more particularly presently.
I know of no serious objections to this hypothesis, nothing but the
"extreme improbability," as its opponents say, "that these animalculæ
should be the rudiments of being so totally dissimilar to them. " But I
wish to know if there is more difference between a foetus and a seminal
animalcule than there is between a foetus and a few material particles
in some other form than that of such animalcule?
The third hypothesis, or that of pre-existing germs, proceeded upon a
precisely opposite view of the subject to that of Leeuwenhoek, namely,
that the foetus is properly the production of the female; that it exists
previous to the sexual congress, with all its organs, in some parts of
the uterine system; and that it receives no proper addition from the
male, but that the seminal fluid acts merely by exciting the powers of
the foetus, or endowing it with vitality.
It is not known who first proposed this hypothesis; but strange as it
may appear, it has had the support of such names as Bonnet, Haller and
Spallanzani, and met with a favorable reception in the middle of the
last century. Agreeable to this hypothesis, our common mother, Eve,
contained a number of homuncules (little men) one within another, like
a nest of boxes, and all within her ovaries, equal to all the number of
births that have ever been, or ever will be, not to reckon abortions.
Were I to bring forward all the facts and arguments that have been
advanced in support of this idea, it seems to me I should fail to
convince sound minds of its correctness; as to arguments against it,
they surely seem uncalled for. Having now presented several hypotheses
of generation, some as to the manner in which the semen reaches or
influences the ovary, and others as to the rudiments of the foetus, I
shall now bring together those views which, upon the whole, appear to me
the most satisfactory.
I believe, with Dr. Dewees, that a set of absorbent vessels extend from
the innermost surface of the _labia externa_, and from the vagina to the
ovary, the whole office of which is to take up the semen or some part
thereof, and convey it to the ovary. I believe, with Leeuwenhoek, that
the seminal animalculæ are the proper rudiments of the foetus, and are
perhaps of different sexes; that in cases of impregnation one of them
is carried not only to, but into a vesicle of an ovary, which is in a
condition to receive and be duly affected by it. * It is here surrounded
by the albuminous fluid which the vesicle contains. This fluid being
somewhat changed in its qualities by its new-comer, stimulates the
minute vessels of the parts which surround it, and thus causes more of
this fluid to be formed; and while it affords the animalcule material
for its development, it puts the delicate membrane of the ovary which
retains it in its place upon the stretch, and finally bursts forth
surrounded probably by an exceedingly delicate membrane of its own. This
membrane, with the albuminous fluid it contains and the animalcule in
the center of it, constitutes the ovum or egg. It is received by the
fimbriated extremity of the Fallopian tube, which by this time has
grasped the ovary, and is by this tube slowly conveyed into the uterus,
to the inner surface of which it attaches itself, through the medium
of the membrane, which is formed by the uterus itself in the interim
between impregnation and the arriving of the ovum in the way I have just
mentioned.
* The opinion that the spermatozoa of seminal filaments are
real animalculæ is now abandoned, but it is held by Dr.
Carpenter and other authorities that they actually, as here
stated, penetrate into the interior of the ovum. "The nature
of impregnation," says Dr. Hermann, "is as yet unknown. In
all probability it is, above all, essential, in order that
it should occur, that one or more spermatozoa should
penetrate the ovum. At any rate, spermatozoa have been found
within the fecundated eggs of the most diverse species of
animals. "--Elements of "Human Physiology," translated from
the 5th ed. , by Dr. Gamgee, p. 534, 1875. --G. R.
The idea that a seminal animalcule enters an ovum while it remains in
the ovary, was never before advanced to my knowledge; hence I consider
it incumbent upon me to advance some reason for the opinion.
First, it is admitted on all hands that the seminal animalculæ are
essential to impregnation, since "they cannot be detected when either
from age or disease the animal is rendered sterile. "
Second, the ovum is impregnated while it remains in the ovary. True,
those who never met with Dr. Dewees' theory, and who, consequently, have
adopted the idea that the semen is ejected into the uterus, as the least
improbable of any with which they were acquainted, have found it very
difficult to dispose of the fact that the ovum is impregnated in the
ovary, and have consequently presumed this is not generally the case.
They admit it is certainly so sometimes, and that it is difficult to
reject the conclusion that it is always so. Dr. Bostock--who, doubtless,
had not met with Dewees' theory at the time he wrote, and who admits
it impossible to conceive how the semen can find its way along the
Fallopian tubes, how it can find its way toward the ovary, farther, at
most, than into the uterus, and, consequently, cannot see how the ovum
can be impregnated into the ovary--says, "Perhaps the most rational
supposition may be that the ovum is transmitted to the uterus in the
unimpregnated state; but there are certain facts which seem almost
incompatible with this idea, especially the cases which not infrequently
occur of perfect foetuses having been found in the tubes, or where they
escaped them into the cavity of the abdomen. Hence it is demonstrated
the ovum is occasionally impregnated in the tubes (why did he not say
ovaria? ), and we can scarcely resist the conclusion that it must always
be the case. ". . . "Haller discusses this hypothesis (Bostock's 'most
natural supposition, perhaps') and decides against it. ". . . "The
experiments of Cruikshank, which were very numerous, and appear to have
been made with the requisite degree of skill and correctness, led to
the conclusion that the rudiment of the young animal is perfected in
the ovarium. ". . . "A case is detailed by Dr. Granville, of a foetus which
appears to have been lodged in the body of the ovarium itself, and is
considered by its author as a proof that conception always takes place
in this organ. "
The above quotations are from the third volume of Bostock's Physiology.
Now, as the seminal animalculæ are essential to impregnation, and as the
ovum is impregnated in the ovarium, what more probable conjecture can we
form than that an animalcule, as the real proper rudiment of the foetus,
enters the ovum, where, being surrounded with albuminous fluid with
which it is nourished, it gradually becomes developed? It may be noticed
that Leeuwenhoek estimates that ten thousand animalculæ of the human
semen may exist in a space not larger than a grain of sand. There can,
therefore, be no difficulty in admitting that they may find their way
along exceedingly minute vessels from the vagina, not only to, but into
the ovum while situated in the ovarium.
I think no one can be disposed to maintain that the animalculæ merely
reaches the surface of the ovum and thus impregnates it. But possibly
some may contend that its sole office is to stimulate the ovum, and
in this way set going that train of actions which are essential to
impregnation. But there is no evidence in favor of this last idea, and
certainly it does not so well harmonize with the fact that the offspring
generally partakes more or less of the character of its male parent. As
Dr. Dewees says of the doctrine of sympathy, "It makes no provision
for the formation of mules; for the peculiarities of and likeness of
parents; and for the propagation of predisposition to disease from
parent to child; for the production of mulattoes," etc.
Considering it important to do away with the popular and mischievous
error that the semen must enter the uterus to effect impregnation, I
shall, in addition to what has been already advanced, here notice the
experiments of Dr. Haighton.
human misery is increased by their doing so. But it is folly to expect
that we can induce such persons to live the lives of Shakers. Nor is it
necessary; all that duty requires of them is to refrain from becoming
parents. Who can estimate the beneficial effect which a rational
moral restraint may thus have on the health and beauty and physical
improvement of our race throughout future generations? "
Let us now turn our attention to the case of unmarried youth.
"Almost all young persons, on reaching the age of maturity, desire to
marry. That heart must be very cold, or very isolated, that does not
find some object on which to bestow its affections. Thus, early marriage
would be almost universal did not prudential consideration interfere.
The young man thinks, 'I cannot marry yet; I cannot support a family.
I must make money first, and think of a matrimonial settlement
afterwards. '
"And so he goes to making money, fully and sincerely resolved in a few
years to share it with her whom he now loves. But passions are strong
and temptations great. Curiosity, perhaps, introduces him into the
company of those poor creatures whom society first reduces to a
dependence on the most miserable of mercenary trades, and then curses
for being what she has made them. There his health and moral feelings
are alike made shipwreck. The affections he had thought to treasure up
for their first object are chilled by dissipation and blunted by excess.
He scarcely retains a passion but avarice. Years pass on--years of
profligacy and speculation--and his wish is accomplished, his fortune is
made. Where now are the feelings and resolve of his youth?
'Like the dew on the mountain,
Like the foam on the river,
Like the bubbles on the fountain,
They are gone--and forever. '
"He is a man of pleasure, a man of the world. He laughs at the romance
of his youth, and marries a fortune. If gaudy equipage and gay parties
confer happiness, he is happy. But if these be only the sunshine on
the stormy sea below, he is a victim to that system of morality which
forbids a reputable connection until the period when provision has been
made for a large expected family. Had he married the first object of his
choice, and simply delayed becoming a father until his prospects seemed
to warrant it, how different might have been his lot. Until men and
women are absolved from the fear of becoming parents, except when they
themselves desire it, they will ever form mercenary and demoralizing
connections, and seek in dissipation the happiness they might have found
in domestic life.
"I know that this, however common, is not a universal case. Sometimes
the heavy responsibilities of a family are incurred at all risks; and
who shall say how often a life of unremitting toil and poverty is the
consequence. Sometimes, if even rarely, the young mind does hold its
first resolves. The youth plods through years of cold celibacy and
solitary anxiety, happy if, before the best hours of his life are gone
and its warmest feelings withered, he may return to claim the reward of
his forbearance and his industry. But even in this comparatively happy
case, shall we count for nothing the years of ascetic sacrifice at which
after happiness is purchased? The days of youth are not too many, nor
its affections too lasting. We may, indeed, if a great object require
it, sacrifice the one and mortify the other. But is this, in itself,
desirable? Does not wisdom tell us that such a sacrifice is a dead
loss--to the warm-hearted often a grievous one? Does not wisdom bid us
temperately enjoy the springtimes of life, 'while the evil day come not,
nor the years draw nigh, when we shall say we have no pleasure in them? '
"Let us say, then, if we will, that the youth who thus sacrifices the
present for the future, chooses wisely between the two evils, profligacy
and asceticism. This is true. But let us not imagine the lesser evil
to be good. It is _not_ good for man to be alone. It is for no man or
woman's happiness or benefit that they should be condemned to Shakerism.
It is a violence done to the feelings and an injury to the character.
A life of rigid celibacy, though infinitely preferable to a life of
dissipation, is yet fraught with many evils. Peevishness, restlessness,
vague longings and instability of character, are amongst the least of
these. The mind is unsettled, and the judgment warped. Even the very
instinct which is thus mortified assumes an undue importance, and
occupies a portion of the thoughts which does not of right or nature
belong to it, and which, during a life of satisfied affection, it would
not obtain. "
In many instances, the genital organs are rendered so irritable by the
repletion to which unnatural continency gives rise, and by the much
thinking caused by such repletion, as to induce a disease known to
medical men by the name of _Gonorrhoea Dormientium_. It consists in
an emission or discharge of the semen during sleep. This discharge is
immediately excited in most instances by a lascivious dream, but such
dream is caused by the repletion and irritability of the genital organs.
It is truly astonishing to what a degree of mental anguish the disease
gives rise in young men. They do not understand the nature, or rather,
the cause of it. They think it depends on a weakness--indeed, the
disease is often called a "seminal weakness"--and that the least
gratification in a natural way would but serve to increase it.
Their anxiety about it weakens the whole system. This weakness they
erroneously attribute to the discharges; they think themselves totally
disqualified for entering into or enjoying the married state. Finally,
the genital and mental organs act and react upon each other so
perniciously as to cause a degree of nervousness, debility, emaciation
and melancholy--in a word, wretchedness that sets description at
defiance. Nothing is so effectual in curing this diseased state of
a body and mind in young men as marriage. All restraint, fear and
solicitude should be removed.
"Inasmuch, then, as the scruples of incurring heavy responsibilities
deter from forming moral connections and encourage intemperance and
prostitution, the knowledge which enables man to limit the number of his
offspring would, in the present state of things, save much unhappi-ness
and prevent many crimes. Young persons sincerely attached to each other,
and who might wish to marry, should marry early, merely resolving not
to become parents until prudence permitted it. The young man, instead
of solitary toil and vulgar dissipation, would enjoy the society and the
assistance of her he has chosen as his companion; and the best years of
life, whose pleasures never return, would not be squandered in riot, nor
lost through mortification. "*
* The passages quoted are from Robert Dale Owen's "Moral
Physiology. "
CHAPTER II. ON GENERATION
I hold the following to be important and undeniable troths: That every
man has a natural right both to receive and convey a knowledge of all
the facts and discoveries of every art and science, excepting such only
as may be secured to some particular person or persons by copyright or
patent; that a physical truth in its general effect cannot be a moral
evil; that no fact in physics or in morals ought to be concealed from
the inquiring mind.
Some may make a misuse of knowledge, but that is their fault; and it is
not right that one person should be deprived of knowledge, of spirits,
of razors, or of anything else which is harmless in itself and may be
useful to him, because another may misuse it.
The subject on generation is not only interesting as a branch of
science, but it is so connected with the happiness of mankind that it is
highly important in a practical point of view. Such, to be sure, is
the custom of the age, that it is not considered a proper subject to
investigate before a popular assembly, nor is it proper to attend the
calls of nature in a like place; yet they must and ought to be attended
to, for the good, the happiness of mankind require it; so, too, for like
reason, the subject of generation ought to be investigated until it be
rightly understood by all people, but at such opportunities as the
good sense of every individual will easily decide to be proper. This,
I presume to say, not simply upon the abstract principle that
all knowledge of Nature's workings is useful, and the want of it
disadvantageous, but from the known moral fact that ignorance of this
process has in many instances proved the cause of a lamentable "mishap,"
and more especially as it is essential to the attainment of the great
advantage, which it is the chief object of this work to bestow upon
mankind.
People generally, as it was the case with physicians until late years,
entertain a very erroneous idea of what takes place in the conception.
Agreeably to this idea the "check" which I consider far preferable
to any other, would not be effectual, as would be obvious to all.
Consequently, entertaining this idea, people would not have due
confidence in it. Hence, it is necessary to correct a long-held and
widely extended error. But this I cannot expect to do by simply saying
it is an error. Deeply rooted and hitherto undisputed opinions are not
so easily eradicated. If I would convince any one that the steps in one
of the most recondite processes of nature are not such as he has always
believed, it will greatly serve my purpose to show what these steps are.
I must first prepare him to be reasoned with, and then reason the
matter all over with him. I must point out the facts which disprove his
opinion, and show that my own is unattended with difficulties.
But what can be more obvious than that it is absolutely impossible
to explain any process or function of the animal economy, so as to be
understood, before the names of the organs which perform this function
have been defined, that is, before the organs themselves have been
described. Now it is well known to every anatomist, and indeed it may
be obvious to all, that in describing any organ or system of organs,
we must always begin with some external and known parts, and proceed
regularly, step by step, to the internal and unknown. As in arithmetic,
"everything must be understood as you go along. "*
* This is an Americanism, which appears to us to convey a
false idea. If it refers to the cases used as illustrations,
Dr. Knowlton is more sparing in his use of them than either
Dr. Bull or Dr. Chavasse. --Publishers' Note.
Fully to effect the objects of this work, it is, therefore, a matter of
necessity that I give an anatomical description of certain parts--even
external parts--which some, but imagine what I have just said, might
think it useless to mention. It is not to gratify the idle curiosity of
the light-minded that this book is written; it is for _utility_ in the
broad and truly philosophical sense of the term; nay, farther, it shall
with the exception of here and there a little spicing*, have confined
to _practical utility_. I shall, therefore, endeaver to treat of the
subject in this chapter so as to be understood, without giving any
description of the male organs of generation; though I hold it an
accomplishment for one be able to speak of those organs, as diseases
often put them under the necessity of doing, without being compelled use
low and vulgar language. But I must briefly describe the female organs;
in doing which I must, of course, speak as do other anatomists and
physiologists; and whoever objects to this will discover more
affectation and prudery than good sense and good will to mankind.
The adipose, or fatty matter, immediately over the share bone, forms
a considerable prominence in females, which, at the age of puberty, is
covered with hair, as in males. This prominence is called Mons Veneris.
The exterior orifice commences immediately below this. On each side of
this orifice is a prominence continued from the mons veneris, which
is largest above and gradually diminishes as it descends. These two
prominences are called the Labia Externa, or external lips. Near the
latter end of pregnancy they become somewhat enlarged and relaxed, so
that they sustain little or no injury during parturition. Just within
the upper or anterior commissure, formed by the junction of these lips,
a little round oblong body is situated. The body is called the clitoris.
Most of its length is bound down, as it were, pretty closely to the
bone; and it is of very variable size in different females. Instances
have occurred where it was so enlarged as to allow the female to have
venereal commerce with others; and in Paris this fact was once made a
public exhibition to the medical faculty. Women thus formed appear to
partake in their general form of the male character, and are called
hermaphrodites. The idea of human beings, called hermaphrodites, which
could be either father or mother, is, doubtless, erroneous. The clitoris
is analogous in its structure to the penis, and like it, is exquisitely
sensitive, being, as it is supposed, the principal seat of pleasure. It
is subject to erection or distension, like the penis, from like causes.
The skin which lines the internal surface of the external lips is folded
in such manner as to form two flat bodies, the exterior edges of which
are convex. They are called the nymphse. They extend downward, one on
each side, from the clitoris to near the middle of the external orifice,
somewhat diverging from each other. Their use is not very evident The
orifice of the urethra (the canal, short in females, which leads to the
bladder) is situated an inch or more farther inward than the clitoris,
and is a little protuberant.
Passing by the external lips, the clitoris, the nymphse and the orifice
of the urethra, we come to the membrane called the hymen. It is situated
just at, or a trifle behind the orifice of the urethra. It is stretched
across the passage, and were it a complete septum, it would close up the
anterior extremity of that portion of the passage which is called the
vagina. But the instances in which the septum or partition is complete
are very rare, there being, in almost all cases, an aperture either in
its center, or frequently in its anterior edge, giving the membrane the
form of a crescent Through this aperture passes the menstrual fluid.
Sometimes, however, this septum is complete, and the menstrual fluid
is retained month after month, until appearances and symptoms much
like those of pregnancy are produced, giving rise to perhaps unjust
suspicions. Such cases require the simple operation of dividing the
hymen. In many instances the hymen is very imperfect, insomuch that some
have doubted whether it is to be found in the generality of virgins.
Where it exists it is generally ruptured in the first intercourse of
the sexes, and the female is said to lose her virginity. In some
rare instances it is so very strong as not to be ruptured by such
intercourse, and the nature of the difficulty not being understood, the
husband has sued for a divorce. But everything may be put to rights by
a slight surgical operation. The parts here described are among those
called the external parts of generation.
The internal organs of generation consist in the female of the Vagina,
the Uterus, the Ovaries and their appendages.
The Vagina is a membranous canal commencing at the hymen and extending
to the uterus. It is a little curved, and extends backward and upward
between the bladder, which lies before and above it, and that extreme
portion of the bowels called the rectum, which lies behind it. The
coat of membrane which lines the internal surface of the vagina forms a
number of transverse ridges. These are to be found only in the lower
or anterior half of the vagina, and they do not extend all round the
vagina, but are situated on its anterior and posterior sides, while
their lateral sides are smooth. I mention these ridges because a
knowledge of them may lead to a more effectual use of one of the checks
to be made known hereafter.
The uterus or womb is also situated between the bladder and the rectum,
but above the vagina. Such is its shape that it has been compared to
a pear with a long neck. There is, of course, considerable difference
between the body and the neck, the first being twice as broad as the
last. Each of these parts is somewhat flattened. In subjects of mature
age, who have been pregnant, the whole of the uterus is about two inches
and a half in length, and more than an inch and a half in breadth at the
broadest part of the body. It is near an inch in thickness. The neck of
the uterus is situated downward, and may be said to be inserted into
the upper extremity of the vagina. It extends down into the vagina the
better part of an inch. In the uterus is a cavity which approaches the
triangular form, and from which a canal passes down through the neck of
the uterus into the vagina. This cavity is so small that its sides are
almost in contact So that the uterus is a thick, firm organ for so small
a one. Comparing the cavity of the uterus to a triangle, we say the
upper side or line of this triangle is transverse with respect to the
body, and the other two lines pass downward and inward, so that they
would form an angle below, did they not before they meet take a turn
more directly downward to form the canal just mentioned. In each of the
upper angles there is an orifice of such size as to admit of a hog's
bristle. These little orifices are the mouths of two tubes, called the
Fallopian tubes, of which more will be said presently. The canal which
passes through the neck of the uterus, connecting the cavity of
this organ with that of the vagina, is about a quarter of an inch in
diameter. It is different from other ducts, for it seems to be a part
of the cavity from which it extends, inasmuch as when the cavity of the
uterus is enlarged in the progress of pregnancy, this canal is gradually
converted into a part of that cavity.
The lower extremity of the neck of the uterus is irregularly convex and
tumid. The orifice of the canal in it is oval, and so situated that it
divides the convex surface of the lower extremity of the neck in two
portions, which are called the lips of the uterus. The anterior is
thicker than the posterior. The orifice itself is called _os tincæ_ or
_os uteri_, or in English, the mouth of the womb. When the parts are in
a weak, relaxed state, the mouth or neck of the uterus is quite low, and
in almost all oases it may be reached by a finger introduced into the
vagina, especially by a second person, who carries the hand behind.
The Ovaries are two bodies of a flattened or oval form, one of which is
situated on each side of the uterus at a little distance from it, and
about as high up as where the uterus becomes narrow to form its neck.
The longest diameter of the ovarium is about an inch. Each ovarium has a
firm coat of membrane. In those who have not been pregnant, it contains
from ten to twenty _vesicles_, which are little round bodies, formed of
a delicate membrane, and filled with a transparent fluid. Some of
these vesicles are situated so near the surface of the ovarium as to
be prominent on its surface. They are of different sizes, the largest
nearly a quarter of a inch in diameter. *
* The vesicles here mentioned are the so-called Graafian
vesicles, or ovisacs, each of which contains in its interior
a little ovum or egg. In the human female the ovum is
extremely minute, so as only to be visible with the aid of a
lens. The Graafian vesicles are not limited to a certain
small number, as was formerly thought, but continue to be
formed in the ovaries, and to discharge at intervals mature
ova during the whole of the fruitful period. --G. R.
In those in whom conception has ever taken place, some of these vesicles
are removed, and in their place a cicatrix or scar is formed which
continues through life. However, the number of cicatrices does not
always correspond with the number of conceptions. They often exceed
it, and are sometimes found where conception has not been known to take
place. The Fallopian Tubes are two canals four or five inches in length,
proceeding from the upper angles of the cavity of the uterus, in a
transverse direction in respect to the body. Having so proceeded
for some distance they turn downward toward the ovaries. At their
commencement in the uterus they are very small, but they enlarge as much
as they progress. The large ends, which hang loose, terminate in open
mouths, the margins of which consist of fimbriated processes, and nearly
touch the ovaria.
We are now prepared to treat of conception. Yet, as menstruation is
closely connected with it, and as a knowledge of many things concerning
menstruation may contribute much to the well-being of females, for
whom this work is at least as much designed as for males, I shall first
briefly treat of this subject.
Menstruation. --When females arrive at the age of puberty they begin to
have a discharge once every month, by way of the vagina, of the color of
blood. This discharge is termed the menses. To have it is to menstruate.
The age at which menstruation commences varies with different
individuals, and also in different climates. The warmer the climate
the earlier it commences and ceases. In temperate climates it
generally commences at the age of fourteen or fifteen, and it ceases at
forty-four, or a little later. *
Whenever it commences the girl acquires a more womanly appearance. It
is a secretion of the uterus, or, in other words, the minute vessels
distributed to the inner coat of uterus, select as it were, from the
blood, and pour out in a gradual manner the materials of this fluid. It
has one of the properties, color, of blood, but it does not coagulate,
or separate into different parts like blood, and cannot properly be
called blood. **
* Dr. Chavasse, on p. 94 of his "Advice to a Wife"
published by W. H. Smith & Son gives instances of very
early menstruation and consequent fecundity. --Publishers'
note,
** "The menstrual discharge," says Dr. Kirkes, "consists of
blood effused from the inner surface of the uterus, and
mixed with mucus from the uterus, vagina, and the external
parts of the generative apparatus. Being diluted by this
admixture, the menstrual blood coagulates less perfectly
than ordinary blood; and the frequent acidity of the vaginal
mucus tends still further to diminish its coagulability. "--
Handbook of Physiology, 8th ed. , p. 727, 1874. --G. R.
When this discharge is in all respects regular, it amounts in most
females to six or eight ounces, and from two to four days' continuance.
During its continuance the women is said to be unwell, or out of order.
Various unpleasant feelings are liable to attend it; but when it is
attended with severe pain, as it not infrequently is, it becomes a
disease, and the woman is not likely to conceive until it is cured.
During the existence of the "turns," or "monthlies," as they are often
called, indigestible food, dancing in warm rooms, sudden exposure
to cold or wet, and mental agitations, should be avoided as much as
possible. The "turns" do not continue during pregnancy, nor nursing,
unless nursing be continued after the "turns" recommence. Some women, it
is true, are subject to a slight hemorrhage that sometimes occurs with
considerable regularity during pregnancy, and which has led them to
suppose they have their turns at such times; but it is not so; the
discharge at such times is real blood. *
* Consult on the whole of this Dr. Chavasse's book, pp. 91-
101, where full details are given. --Publishers' note.
The use of the menstrual discharge seems to be to prepare the uterine
system for conception. For females do not become pregnant before
they commence, nor after they cease having turns; nor while they are
suppressed by some disease, by cold or by nursing. Some credible women,
however, have said that they become pregnant while nursing, without
having had any turn since their last lying-in. It is believed that in
these oases they had some discharge, colorless, perhaps, which they did
not notice, but which answered the purposes of the common one.
Women
are not nearly so likely to conceive during the week before a monthly
as during the week immediately after. * But although the use of this
secretion seems to be to prepare for conception, it is not to be
inferred that the reproductive instinct ceases at the "turn of life,"
or when the woman ceases to menstruate. On the contrary, it is said that
this passion often increases at this period, and continues in a greater
or less degree to an extreme age.
* See, however, Dr. Bull's "Hints to Mothers," pp. 31-58,
and 127-129 (published by Longmans, Green & Co. )--
Publishers' note.
Conception. --The part performed by the male in the reproduction of the
species consists in exciting the organism of the female, and depositing
the semen in the vagina. Before I inquire what takes place in the
females I propose to speak of the semen.
This fluid, which is secreted by the testicles, may be said to possess
three kinds of properties, physical, chemical, physiological. Its
physical properties are known to every one--it is a thickish, nearly
opaque fluid, of a peculiar odor, saltish taste, etc. As to its chemical
properties, it is found by analysis to consist of 900 parts of water,
60 of animal muscilage, 10 of soda, 30 of phosphate of lime. Its
physiological property is that of exciting the female genital organs in
a peculiar manner.
When the semen is examined by microscope, there can be distinguished a
multitude of small animalculæ, which appear to have a rounded head and a
long tail. These animalculæ move with a certain degree of rapidity. They
appear to avoid the light and to delight in the shade. Leeuwenhoek, if
not the discoverer of the seminal animalculse, was the first who brought
the fact of their existence fully before the public. With respect to
their size, he remarked that ten thousand of them might exist in a space
not larger than a grain of sand. They have a definite figure, and are
obviously different from the animalculse found in any other fluid. *
* See Dr. Carpenter's "Animal Physiology," p. 558 (published
by H. G. Bonn); Nichol's "Human Physiology," pp. 253-255
(published by Trubner & Co. )--Publishers' note.
Leeuwenhoek believed them to be the beginnings of future animals--that
they are of different sexes, upon which depends the future sex of the
foetus. Be this as it may, it appears to be admitted on all hands that
the animalculæ are present in the semen of the various species of
male animals, and that they cannot be detected when either from age or
disease the animals are rendered sterile. "Hence," says Bostock, "we can
scarcely refuse our assent to the position that these animalculæ are
in some way or other instrumental to the production of the foetus. "
The secretion of the semen commences at the age of puberty. Before this
period the testicles secrete a viscid, transparent fluid, which has
never been analyzed, but which is doubtless essentially different from
semen. The revolution which the whole economy undergoes at this period,
such as the tone of the voice, and development of hairs, the beard, the
increase of the muscles and bones, etc. , is intimately connected with
the testicles and the secretion of this fluid. * "Eunuchs preserve the
same form as in childhood; their voice is effeminate, they have no
beard, their disposition is timid; and finally their physical and moral
character very nearly resembles that of females. Nevertheless, many of
them take delight in venereal intercourse, and give themselves up with
ardor to a connection which must always prove unfruitful. "**
* Nichol's "Human Physiology," pp. 256-257.
--Publishers' note
** Magendic's Physiology. --Author's note.
The part performed by the female in the reproduction of the species is
far more complicated than that performed by the male. It consists, in
the first instance, in providing a substance which, in connection
with the male secretion, is to constitute the foetus; in furnishing a
suitable situation in which the foetus may be developed; in affording
due nourishment for its growth; in bringing it forth, and afterward
furnishing it with food especially adapted to the digestive organs of
the young animal. Some parts of this process are not well understood,
and such variety of hypotheses have been proposed to explain them that
Drelincourt, who lived in the latter part of the seventeenth century, is
said to have collected two hundred and sixty hypotheses of generation.
It ought to be known that women have conceived when the semen was merely
applied to the parts anterior to the hymen, as the internal surface
of the external lips, the nymphæ, etc. This is proved by the fact that
several cases of pregnancy have occurred when the hymen was entire. The
fact need not surprise us, for, agreeable to the theory of absorption,
we have to account for it only to suppose that some of the absorbent
vessels are situated anterior to the hymen--a supposition by no means
unreasonable.
There are two peculiarities of the human species respecting conception
which I will notice. First, unlike other animals they are liable, and
for what has been proved to the contrary, equally liable--to conceive
at all seasons of the year. Second, a woman rarely, if ever, conceives
until after having several sexual connections; nor does one connection
in fifty cause conception in the matrimonial state, where the husband
and wife live together uninterruptedly. Public women rarely conceive,
owing probably to a weakened state of the genital system, induced by too
frequent and promiscuous intercourse.
It is universally agreed, that some time after a fruitful connection,
a vesicle (two in case of twins) of one or the other ovary becomes so
enlarged that it bursts forth from the ovary and takes the name of
ovum, which is taken up, or rather received, as it bursts forth, by the
fimbriated extremity of the Fallopian tube, and is then conducted along
the tube into the uterus, to the inner surface of which it attaches
itself. *
* Since Dr. Knowlton's work was written, the very important
fact has been discovered that ova are periodically
discharged from the ovaries in the human female and other
animals, not in consequence of fruitful connection having
taken place, as was formerly believed, but quite
independently of intercourse with the male. Such a discharge
of ova occurs in the lower animals at the time of heat or
rut, and in women during menstruation. At each menstrual
period, a Graafian vesicle becomes enlarged, bursts, and
lets the ovum which it contains escape into the Fallopian
tube, along which it passes to the uterus. "It has long been
known," says Dr. Kirke, "that in the so-called oviparous
animals, the separation of ova from the ovary may take place
independently of impregnation by the male, or even of sexual
union. And it is now established that a like maturation and
discharge of ova, independently of coition, occurs in
Mammalia, the periods at which the matured ova are separated
from the ovaries and received into the Fallopian tubes being
indicated in the lower Mammalia by the phenomena of _heat_
or _rut_; in the human female by the phenomena of
_menstruation_. Sexual desire manifests itself in the human
female to a greater degree at these periods, and in the
female of mammiferous animals at no other time. If the union
of the sexes takes place, the ovum may be fecundated, and if
no union occur, it perishes. From what has been said it may
therefore be concluded that the two states, heat and
menstruation, are analogous, and that the essential
accompaniment of both is the maturation and extrusion of
ova. "--"Handbook of Physiology," page 724. --G. R.
Here it becomes developed into a full grown foetus, and is brought forth
about forty-two weeks from the time of conception by a process termed
parturition. But one grand question is, how the semen operates itself,
or any part thereof reaches the ovary, and if so, in what way it is
conveyed to them. It was long the opinion that the semen was ejected
into the uterus in the act of coition, and that it afterward, by some
unknown means, found its way into and along the Fallopian tubes to the
ovary. But there are several facts which weigh heavily against this
opinion, and some that entirely forbid it. In the first place, there are
several well attested instances in which impregnation took place while
the hymen remained entire, where the vagina terminated in the rectum,
where it was so contracted by a cicatrix as not to admit the penis. In
all these cases the semen could not have been lodged anywhere near
the mouth of the uterus, much less ejected into it. Secondly, it has
followed a connection where from some defect in the male organs, as the
urethra terminating some inches behind the end of the penis, and it is
clear that the semen could not have been injected into the uterus, nor
even near its mouth. Third, the neck of the unimpregnated uterus is so
narrow as merely to admit a probe, and is filled with a thick tenacious
fluid, which seemingly could not be forced away by any force which the
male organ possesses of ejecting the semen, even if the mouth of the
male urethra were in opposition with that of the uterus. But fourth, the
mouth of the uterus is by no means fixed. By various causes it is made
to assume various situations, and probably the mouth of the urethra
rarely comes in contact with it.
Fifth. "The tenacity of the male semen is such as renders its passage
through the small aperture in the neck of the uterus impossible, even by
a power of force much superior to that which we may rationally suppose
to reside in the male organs of generation. "
Sixth. "Harvey and DeGraaf dissected animals at almost every period
after coition for the express purpose of discovering the semen, but were
never able to detect the smallest vestige of it in the uterus in any one
instance. "*
* Dewees' Essay on Superfoetation. --Author's note.
Aware of the insurmountable objection to this view of the manner
in which the semen reaches the ovary, it has been supposed by some
physiologists that the semen is absorbed from the vagina into the great
circulating system, where it is mixed, of course, with the blood, and
goes the whole round of the circulation subject to the influence of
those causes which produce great changes in the latter fluid.
To this hypothesis it may be objected, that while there is no direct
evidence in support of it, it is exceedingly unreasonable, inasmuch
as we can scarcely believe that the semen can go the whole round of
circulation, and then find its way to the ovary in such a pure unaltered
state as the experiments of Spallanzani prove it must be in, that it may
impregnate.
A third set of theorists have maintained that an imperceptible
something, which they have called _aura seminalis_, passes from the
semen lodged in the vagina to the ovary, and excites those actions which
are essential to the development of an ovum. Others, again, have told us
that it is all done by sympathy. That neither the semen nor any volatile
part of it finds its way to the ovary; but that the semen excites the
parts with which it is in contact in a peculiar manner, and by the law
of animal economy, termed sympathy, or consent of parts, a peculiar
action commences in the ovary, by which an ovum is developed.
To both these conjectures it may be objected that they have no other
foundation but the supposed necessity of adopting them, to account for
the effect of impregnation; and, further, they "make no provision for
the formation of mules; for the peculiarities of, and likeness to,
parents, and for the propagation of predisposition to disease, from
parent to child; for the production of mulattoes," etc.
A fifth, and to me far more satisfactory view of the subject than any
other, is that advanced by our distinguished countryman, Dr. Dewees, of
Philadelphia. It appears to harmonize with all known facts relating
to the conception and something from analogy may also be drawn in its
favor. It is this, that there is a set of absorbent vessels, leading
directly from the inner surface of the _labia externa_ and the vagina,
to the ovaries, the whole office of which vessels is to absorb the semen
and convey it to the ovaries. * I do not know that these vessels have
yet been fully discovered, but in a note on the sixteenth page of his
"Essays on Various Subjects," the doctor says: "The existence of these
vessels is now rendered almost certain, as Dr. Gartner, of Copenhagen,
has discovered a duct leading from the ovary to the vagina. "
* This view is not held at the present day. The commonly
received doctrine now is that the seminal fluid enters the
uterus, whether during the intercourse or after it, and
passes along the Fallopian tubes to the ovaries; and that
fecundation takes place at some point of this course, most
frequently in the tubes, but also at times in the ovary
itself, or even, perhaps, in the uterus. It is essentially
necessary for fecundation that the spermatozoa should come
into actual contact with the ovum. "That the spermatozoa
make their way toward the ovarium, and fecundate the ovum
either before it entirely quits the ovisac or very shortly
afterward," says Dr. Carpenter, "appears to be the general
rule in regard to the Mammalia; and their power of movement
must obviously be both vigorous and long continued to enable
them to traverse so great an extent of mucous membrane,
especially when it is remembered that they ascend in
opposition to the direction of the ciliary movement of the
epithelial cells and to the downward peristaltic action of
the Fallopian tubes. * * * There can be no doubt that it is
the contact of the spermatozoa with the ovum, and in the
changes which occur as the immediate consequence of that
contact, that the act of fecundation essentially consists. "
--"Principles of Human Physiology," 8th ed. , p. 961,1876. --G. R.
Another question of considerable moment relating to generation is from
which parent are the first rudiments of the foetus derived.
The earliest hypothesis with which we are acquainted, and which has
received the support of some of the most eminent of the moderns,
ascribes the original formation of the foetus to the combination of
particles of matter derived from each of the parents. This hypothesis
naturally presents itself to the mind as the obvious method of
explaining the necessity for the cooperation of the two sexes, and the
resemblance in external form, and even in mind and character, which the
offspring often bears to the male parent. "The principal objections,"
says Bostock, "to his hypothesis, independent of the want of any direct
proof of a female seminal fluid, are of two descriptions, those which
depend upon the supposed impossibility of unorganized matter forming
an organized being, and those which are derived from observations and
experiments of Haller and Spallanzani, which they brought forward in
support of their theory of pre-existent germs. "
In relation to these objections I remark, first those whose experience
has been with hale females, I suspect, can have no doubt but that the
female organism increases like that of the male, until an emission of
fluid of some kind or other takes place. But whether this secretion may
properly be called semen, whether any part of it unites with the male
semen in forming the rudiments of the foetus, is another question. For
my part I am inclined to the opinion that it does not. * I rather regard
it as the result of exalted excitation, analogous to the increased
secretion of other organs from increased stimulation; and if it may be
for any object or use, as it probably is, it is that of affording
nature a means of relieving herself; or, in other words, of quieting the
venereal passion. If this passion, being once roused, could not by some
means or other be calmed, it would command by far too great a portion of
our thoughts, and with many constitutions the individuals, whether male
or female, could not conduct themselves with due decorum. One fact which
leads me to think that the female secretion in the act of coition is not
essential to impregnation is, that many females have conceived, if their
unbiased testimony may be relied on, when they experienced no pleasure.
In these cases it is more than probable that there was no orgasm, nor
any secretion or emission of fluid on the part of the female.
* With regard to this secretion in the female, which has
nothing of a seminal character, Dr. Carpenter observes: "Its
admixture with the male semen has been supposed to have some
connection with impregnation; but no proof whatever has been
given that any such admixture is necessary. "--"Human
Physiology," p. 991. --G. R.
As to the objection of the supposed impossibility of unorganized matter
forming an organized being, I do not believe such a thing takes place,
even if we admit that "the original formation of the foetus is a
combination of particles of matter derived from each of the parents. "
What do, or rather what ought we to mean by organized matter? Not,
surely, that it exhibits some obvious physical structure, unlike what is
to be found in inorganic matter, but that it exhibits phenomena, and of
course may be said to possess properties unlike any kind of inorganic
matter. Matter unites with matter in three ways, mechanically,
chemically and organically, and each mode of union gives rise to
properties peculiar to itself. When matter unites organically, the
substance or being so formed exhibits some phenomena essentially
different from what inorganic bodies exhibit. It is on this account that
we ascribe to organic bodies certain properties, which we call
physiological properties, such as contractility, sensibility, life, etc.
When, from any cause, these bodies have undergone such a change that
they no longer exhibit the phenomena peculiar to them, they are said to
have lost these properties, and to be dead. A substance need not possess
all the physiological properties of an animal of the higher orders to
entitle it to the name of an organized or living substance, nor need it
possess the physical property of solidity. The blood, as well as many of
the secretions, does several things, exhibits several phenomena, which
no mechanical or mere chemical combinations of matter do exhibit. We
must therefore ascribe to it certain physiological properties, and
regard it as an organized, a living fluid, as was contended by the
celebrated John Hunter. So with respect to the semen, it certainly
possesses physiological properties, one in particular peculiar to
itself, namely, the property of impregnating the female; and upon no
sound principle can it be regarded in any other light than as an
organized, and of course a living fluid. And if the female secretion or
any part of it unite with the male secretion in the formation of the
rudiments or the foetus in a different manner than any other substance
would, then it certainly has the property of doing so, whether we give
this property a name or not; and a regard to the soundest principles of
physiology compels us to class this property with the physiological or
vital, and of course to regard this secretion as an organized and living
fluid So, then, unorganized matter does not form an organized being,
admitting the hypothesis before us as correct.
That organized being should give rise to other organized beings under
favorable circumstances as to nourishment, warmth, etc. , is no more
wonderful than that fire should give rise to fire when air and fuel are
present. To be sure, there are some minute steps in the processes which
are not fully known to us; still, if they ever should be known, we
should unquestionably see that there is a natural cause for every one
of them; and that they are all consonant with certain laws of the animal
economy. We should see no necessity of attempting to explain the process
of generation by bringing to our aid, or rather to the darkening of
the subject, any imaginary principle, as the _visus formaticus_ of
Blumenbach.
As to the "observations and experiments of Haller and Spallanzani," I
think, with Dr. Bostock, that they weigh but little, if any, against the
theory before us. I shall not be at the labor of bringing them forward
and showing their futility as objections to this theory, for I am far
from insisting on the correctness of it; that is, I do not insist that
any part of the female secretion, during coition, unites with the male
semen in the formation of the rudiments of the foetus.
The second hypothesis or theory, I shall notice, as to the rudiments of
the foetus, is that of Leeuwenhoek, who regarded the seminal animalculse
of the male semen as the proper rudiments of the foetus, and thought
that the office of the female is to afford them a suitable receptacle
where they may be supported and nourished until they are able to exist
by the exercise of their own functions. This is essentially the view of
the subject which I intend to give more particularly presently.
I know of no serious objections to this hypothesis, nothing but the
"extreme improbability," as its opponents say, "that these animalculæ
should be the rudiments of being so totally dissimilar to them. " But I
wish to know if there is more difference between a foetus and a seminal
animalcule than there is between a foetus and a few material particles
in some other form than that of such animalcule?
The third hypothesis, or that of pre-existing germs, proceeded upon a
precisely opposite view of the subject to that of Leeuwenhoek, namely,
that the foetus is properly the production of the female; that it exists
previous to the sexual congress, with all its organs, in some parts of
the uterine system; and that it receives no proper addition from the
male, but that the seminal fluid acts merely by exciting the powers of
the foetus, or endowing it with vitality.
It is not known who first proposed this hypothesis; but strange as it
may appear, it has had the support of such names as Bonnet, Haller and
Spallanzani, and met with a favorable reception in the middle of the
last century. Agreeable to this hypothesis, our common mother, Eve,
contained a number of homuncules (little men) one within another, like
a nest of boxes, and all within her ovaries, equal to all the number of
births that have ever been, or ever will be, not to reckon abortions.
Were I to bring forward all the facts and arguments that have been
advanced in support of this idea, it seems to me I should fail to
convince sound minds of its correctness; as to arguments against it,
they surely seem uncalled for. Having now presented several hypotheses
of generation, some as to the manner in which the semen reaches or
influences the ovary, and others as to the rudiments of the foetus, I
shall now bring together those views which, upon the whole, appear to me
the most satisfactory.
I believe, with Dr. Dewees, that a set of absorbent vessels extend from
the innermost surface of the _labia externa_, and from the vagina to the
ovary, the whole office of which is to take up the semen or some part
thereof, and convey it to the ovary. I believe, with Leeuwenhoek, that
the seminal animalculæ are the proper rudiments of the foetus, and are
perhaps of different sexes; that in cases of impregnation one of them
is carried not only to, but into a vesicle of an ovary, which is in a
condition to receive and be duly affected by it. * It is here surrounded
by the albuminous fluid which the vesicle contains. This fluid being
somewhat changed in its qualities by its new-comer, stimulates the
minute vessels of the parts which surround it, and thus causes more of
this fluid to be formed; and while it affords the animalcule material
for its development, it puts the delicate membrane of the ovary which
retains it in its place upon the stretch, and finally bursts forth
surrounded probably by an exceedingly delicate membrane of its own. This
membrane, with the albuminous fluid it contains and the animalcule in
the center of it, constitutes the ovum or egg. It is received by the
fimbriated extremity of the Fallopian tube, which by this time has
grasped the ovary, and is by this tube slowly conveyed into the uterus,
to the inner surface of which it attaches itself, through the medium
of the membrane, which is formed by the uterus itself in the interim
between impregnation and the arriving of the ovum in the way I have just
mentioned.
* The opinion that the spermatozoa of seminal filaments are
real animalculæ is now abandoned, but it is held by Dr.
Carpenter and other authorities that they actually, as here
stated, penetrate into the interior of the ovum. "The nature
of impregnation," says Dr. Hermann, "is as yet unknown. In
all probability it is, above all, essential, in order that
it should occur, that one or more spermatozoa should
penetrate the ovum. At any rate, spermatozoa have been found
within the fecundated eggs of the most diverse species of
animals. "--Elements of "Human Physiology," translated from
the 5th ed. , by Dr. Gamgee, p. 534, 1875. --G. R.
The idea that a seminal animalcule enters an ovum while it remains in
the ovary, was never before advanced to my knowledge; hence I consider
it incumbent upon me to advance some reason for the opinion.
First, it is admitted on all hands that the seminal animalculæ are
essential to impregnation, since "they cannot be detected when either
from age or disease the animal is rendered sterile. "
Second, the ovum is impregnated while it remains in the ovary. True,
those who never met with Dr. Dewees' theory, and who, consequently, have
adopted the idea that the semen is ejected into the uterus, as the least
improbable of any with which they were acquainted, have found it very
difficult to dispose of the fact that the ovum is impregnated in the
ovary, and have consequently presumed this is not generally the case.
They admit it is certainly so sometimes, and that it is difficult to
reject the conclusion that it is always so. Dr. Bostock--who, doubtless,
had not met with Dewees' theory at the time he wrote, and who admits
it impossible to conceive how the semen can find its way along the
Fallopian tubes, how it can find its way toward the ovary, farther, at
most, than into the uterus, and, consequently, cannot see how the ovum
can be impregnated into the ovary--says, "Perhaps the most rational
supposition may be that the ovum is transmitted to the uterus in the
unimpregnated state; but there are certain facts which seem almost
incompatible with this idea, especially the cases which not infrequently
occur of perfect foetuses having been found in the tubes, or where they
escaped them into the cavity of the abdomen. Hence it is demonstrated
the ovum is occasionally impregnated in the tubes (why did he not say
ovaria? ), and we can scarcely resist the conclusion that it must always
be the case. ". . . "Haller discusses this hypothesis (Bostock's 'most
natural supposition, perhaps') and decides against it. ". . . "The
experiments of Cruikshank, which were very numerous, and appear to have
been made with the requisite degree of skill and correctness, led to
the conclusion that the rudiment of the young animal is perfected in
the ovarium. ". . . "A case is detailed by Dr. Granville, of a foetus which
appears to have been lodged in the body of the ovarium itself, and is
considered by its author as a proof that conception always takes place
in this organ. "
The above quotations are from the third volume of Bostock's Physiology.
Now, as the seminal animalculæ are essential to impregnation, and as the
ovum is impregnated in the ovarium, what more probable conjecture can we
form than that an animalcule, as the real proper rudiment of the foetus,
enters the ovum, where, being surrounded with albuminous fluid with
which it is nourished, it gradually becomes developed? It may be noticed
that Leeuwenhoek estimates that ten thousand animalculæ of the human
semen may exist in a space not larger than a grain of sand. There can,
therefore, be no difficulty in admitting that they may find their way
along exceedingly minute vessels from the vagina, not only to, but into
the ovum while situated in the ovarium.
I think no one can be disposed to maintain that the animalculæ merely
reaches the surface of the ovum and thus impregnates it. But possibly
some may contend that its sole office is to stimulate the ovum, and
in this way set going that train of actions which are essential to
impregnation. But there is no evidence in favor of this last idea, and
certainly it does not so well harmonize with the fact that the offspring
generally partakes more or less of the character of its male parent. As
Dr. Dewees says of the doctrine of sympathy, "It makes no provision
for the formation of mules; for the peculiarities of and likeness of
parents; and for the propagation of predisposition to disease from
parent to child; for the production of mulattoes," etc.
Considering it important to do away with the popular and mischievous
error that the semen must enter the uterus to effect impregnation, I
shall, in addition to what has been already advanced, here notice the
experiments of Dr. Haighton.
