Page:The Works of William Harvey (part 1 of 2).djvu/569

 without any kind of pleasurable sensation whatsoever. But of these things more in another place.

The vulva, or vagina uteri, which extends from the os exter- num to the inner orifice of the uterus, is situated in the hind, as well as in the human female, between the urinary bladder and the intestinum rectum, and corresponds in length, width, and general dimensions, with the penis of the male. When this part is laid open it is found occupied lengthwise by rugae and furrows, admitting of ready distension, and lubricated with a sluggish fluid. At its bottom we observe a very narrow and small orifice, the commencement of the cervix uteri, by which whatever is propelled outwards from the cavity of the uterus must pass. This is the corresponding orifice to that which medical men assert is so firmly closed and sealed up in the pregnant woman and virgin, that it will not even admit the point of a probe or fine needle.

The os uteri is followed by the cervix or process, which is much longer and rounder than in woman, and also more fibrous, thicker, and nervous ; it extends from the bottom of the vagina to the body of the uterus. If this cervix uteri be divided lon- gitudinally, you perceive not only its external orifice at the bottom of the vagina, its surface in close contact, and so firmly agglutinated that not even air blown into the vagina will pe- netrate the cavity of the uterus, but five other similar con- strictions placed in regular order, firmly contracted against the entrance of any foreign body and sealed with gelatinous mucus ; just as we find the narrow orifice of the woman's uterus plugged with a yellowish glutinous mass. A like constriction of parts, all firmly closed, and precluding all possibility of entrance, Fabricius has found in the uterine neck of the sheep, sow, and goat. In the deer there are very distinctly five of these con- strictions, or so many orifices of the uterus constricted and con- glutinated, which may all justly be looked upon as so many barriers against the entrance of anything from without. Such particular care has nature taken, that if the first barrier were forced by any cause or violence, the second should .still stand good, and so the third, and the fourth, and the fifth, deter- mined apparently that nothing should enter. A probe pushed from within outwards, however, from the cavity of the uterus towards the vagina, passes through readily. A way had to be