The Works of Aristotle the Famous Philosopher Part 3

[1] Attributed to George IV (Translator).

[2] A young man was once tried at Rutland a.s.sizes for violating a virgin, and after close questioning, the girl swearing positively in the matter, and naming the time, place and manner of the action, it was resolved that she should be examined by a skilful surgeon and two midwives, who were to report on oath, which they did, and declared that the membranes were intact and unlacerated, and that, in their opinion, her body had not been penetrated. This had its due effect upon the jury, and they acquitted the prisoner, and the girl afterwards confessed that she swore it against him out of revenge, as he had promised to marry her, and had afterwards declined.

CHAPTER XI

_Directions and Cautions for Midwives; and, first, what ought to be the qualifications of a midwife._

A midwife who wishes to acquit herself well in her employment, ought certainly not to enter upon it rashly or unadvisedly, but with all imaginable caution, remembering that she is responsible for any mischief which may happen through her ignorance or neglect. None, therefore, should undertake that duty merely because of their age or because they themselves have had many children, for, in such, generally, many things will be found wanting, which she should possess. She ought to be neither too old nor too young, neither very fat, nor so thin, as to be weak, but in a good habit of body; not subject to illness, fears, nor sudden frights; well-made and neat in her attire, her hands small and smooth, her nails kept well-trimmed and without any rings on her fingers whilst she is engaged in her work, nor anything upon her wrists that may obstruct her. And to these ought to be added activity, and a due amount of strength, with much caution and diligence, nor should she be given to drowsiness or impatience.

She should be polite and affable in her manners, sober and chaste, not given to pa.s.sion, liberal and compa.s.sionate towards the poor, and not greedy of gain when she attends the rich. She should have a cheerful and pleasant temper, so that she may be the more easily able to comfort her patients during labour. She must never be in a hurry, though her business may call her to some other case, lest she should thereby endanger the mother or the child.

She ought to be wary, prudent, and intelligent, but above all, she ought to be possessed by the fear of G.o.d, which will give her both "knowledge and discretion," as the wise man says.

CHAPTER XII

_Further Directions to Midwives, teaching them what they ought to do, and what to avoid._

Since the duties of a midwife have such a great influence on the well-doing or the contrary of both women and children, in the first place, she must be diligent in gaining all such knowledge as may be useful to her in her practice, and never to think herself so perfect, but that it may be possible for her to add to her knowledge by study and experience. She should, however, never try any experiments unless she has tried them, or knows that they can do no harm; practising them neither upon rich nor poor, but freely saying what she knows, and never prescribing any medicines which will procure abortion, even though requested; for this is wicked in the highest degree, and may be termed murder. If she be sent for to people whom she does not know, let her be very cautious before she goes, lest by attending an infectious woman, she runs the danger of injuring others, as sometimes happens. Neither must she make her dwelling a receiving-house for big-bellied women to discharge their load, lest it get her a bad name and she by such means loses her practice.

In attending on women, if the birth happens to be difficult, she must not seem to be anxious, but must cheer the woman up and do all she can to make her labour easy. She will find full directions for this, in the second part of this book.

She must never think of anything but doing well, seeing that everything that is required is in readiness, both for the woman and for receiving the child, and above all, let her keep the woman from becoming unruly when her pains come on, lest she endanger her own life, and the child's as well.

She must also take care not to be hurried over her business but wait G.o.d's time for the birth, and she must by no means allow herself to be upset by fear, even if things should not go well, lest that should make her incapable of rendering that a.s.sistance which the woman in labour stands in need of, for where there is the most apparent danger, there the most care and prudence are required to set things right.

And now, because she can never be a skilful midwife who knows nothing but what is to be seen outwardly, I do not think it will be amiss but rather very necessary, modestly to describe the generative parts of women as they have been anatomised by learned men, and to show the use of such vessels as contribute to generation.

CHAPTER XIII

_The External, and Internal Organs of Generation in Women._

If it were not for the public benefit, especially for that of the professors and pract.i.tioners of the art of midwifery, I would refrain from treating the secrets of Nature, because they may be turned to ridicule by lascivious and lewd people. But as it is absolutely necessary that they should be known for the public good, I will not omit them because some may make a wrong use of them. Those parts which can be seen at the lowest part of the stomach are the _fissure magna_, or the _great cleft_, with its _l.a.b.i.a_ or lips, the _Mons Veneris_, or Mountain of Venus, and the hair. These together are called the _pudenda_, or things to be ashamed of because when they are exposed they cause a woman _pudor_, or shame. The _fissure magna_ reaches from the lower part of the _os pubis_, to within an inch of the _a.n.u.s_, but it is less and closer in virgins than in those who have borne children, and has two lips, which grow thicker and fuller towards the pubis, and meeting on the middle of the _os pubis_, form that rising hill which is called the _Mons Veneris_, or the Hill of Venus.

Next come the _Nymphae_ and the _c.l.i.toris_, the former of which is a membrany and moist substance, spongy, soft and partly fleshy, of a red colour and in the shape of two wings, which are joined at an acute angle at their base, producing a fleshy substance there which covers the c.l.i.toris, and sometimes they extend so far, that an incision is required to make room for a man's instrument of generation.

The _c.l.i.toris_ is a substance in the upper part of the division where the two wings meet, and the seat of venereal pleasure, being like a man's _p.e.n.i.s_ in situation, substance, composition and power of erection, growing sometimes to the length of two inches out of the body, but that never happens except through extreme l.u.s.tfulness or some extraordinary accident. This _c.l.i.toris_ consists of two spongy and skinny bodies, containing a distinct original from the _os pubis_, its tip being covered with a tender skin, having a hole or pa.s.sage like a man's yard or _p.e.n.i.s_, although not quite through, in which alone, and in its size it differs from it.

The next things are the fleshy k.n.o.bs of the great neck of the womb, and these k.n.o.bs are behind the wings and are four in number, resembling myrtle berries, and being placed quadrangularly one against the other, and here the orifice of the bladder is inserted, which opens into the fissures, to evacuate the urine, and one of these k.n.o.bs is placed before it, and closes up the pa.s.sage in order to secure it from cold, or any suchlike inconvenience.

The lips of the womb, which appear next, disclose its neck, if they are separated, and two things may be observed in them, which are the neck itself and the _hymen_, or more properly, the _claustrum virginale_, of which I have spoken before. By the neck of the womb we must understand the channel that lies between the above-mentioned k.n.o.bs and the inner bone of the womb, which receives the p.e.n.i.s like a sheath, and so that it may be more easily dilated by the pleasure of procreation, the substance is sinewy and a little spongy. There are several folds or pleats in this cavity, made by tunicles, which are wrinkled like a full blown rose. In virgins they appear plainly, but in women who are used to copulation they disappear, so that the inner side of the neck of the womb appears smooth, but in old women it is more hard and gristly. But though this channel is sometimes crooked and sinks down yet at the times of copulation, labour, or of the monthly flow, it is erected or distended, which overtension occasions the pain in childbirth.

The hymen, or _claustrum virginale_, is that which closes the neck of the womb, and is broken by the first act of copulation; its use being rather to check the undue menstrual flow in virgins, rather than to serve any other purpose, and usually when it is broken, either by copulation, or by any other means, a small quant.i.ty of blood flows from it, attended with some little pain. From this some observe that between the folds of the two tunicles, which const.i.tute the neck of the womb there are many veins and arteries running along, and arising from, the vessels on both sides of the thighs, and so pa.s.sing into the neck of the womb, being very large; and the reason for this is, that the neck of the bladder requires to be filled with great vigour, so as to be dilated, in order that it may lay hold of the p.e.n.i.s better; for great heat is required in such motions, and that becomes more intense by the act of friction, and consumes a considerable amount of moisture, for supplying which large vessels are absolutely necessary.

Another cause of the largeness of the vessels is, that menses make their way through them, which often occasions pregnant women to continue menstruating: for though the womb be shut up, yet the pa.s.sages in the neck of the womb through which these vessels pa.s.s, are open. In this case, we may further observe, that as soon as the _pudenda_ are penetrated, there appear two little pits or holes which contain a secretion, which is expelled during copulation, and gives the woman great pleasure.

CHAPTER XIV

_A description of the Fabric of the Womb, the preparing Vessels and t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es in Women. Also of the Different and Ejaculatory Vessels._

The womb is joined to its neck in the lower part of the _Hypogastrium_ where the hips are the widest and broadest, as they are greater and broader there than those of men, and it is placed between the bladder and the straight gut, which keeps it from swaying, and yet gives it freedom to stretch and dilate, and again to contract, as nature requires. Its shape is somewhat round and not unlike a gourd, growing smaller and more acute towards one end, being knit together by its own ligaments; its neck likewise is joined by its own substance and by certain membranes that fasten into the _os sacrum_ and the share-bone.

Its size varies much in different women, and the difference is especially great between those who have borne children and those who have had none. Its substance exceeds a thumb's breadth in thickness, and so far from decreasing conception, it rather increases; and in order to strengthen it it is interwoven with fibres which cross it from side to side, some of which are straight and some winding, and its proper vessels are veins, arteries and nerves. Amongst these there are two small veins which pa.s.s into the womb from the spermatic vessels, and two larger ones from the neck: the mouth of these veins pierces as far as the inward cavity.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Position of a Child in the Womb just before delivery.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: The action of quickening]

The womb has two arteries on both sides of the spermatic vessels and the hypogastric, which accompany the veins; and besides these, there are several little nerves in the form of a net, which extend throughout it, from the bottom of the _pudenda_; their chief function is sensibility and pleasure, as they move in sympathy between the head and the womb.

It may be further noted that the womb is occasionally moveable by means of the two ligaments that hang on either side of it, and often rises and falls. The neck of the womb is extremely sensitive, so that if it be at any time out of order through over fatness, moisture or relaxation, it thereby becomes subject to barrenness. With pregnant women, a glutinous matter is often found at the entrance to the womb so as to facilitate the birth; for at the time of delivery, the mouth of the womb is opened as wide as the size of the child requires, and dilates equally from top to bottom.

The spermatic vessels in women, consist of two veins and two arteries, which differ from those of men only in size and the manner of their insertion; for the number of veins and arteries is the same as in men, the right vein issuing from the trunk of the hollow vein descending and besides them there are two arteries, which flow from the aorta.

These vessels are narrower and shorter in women than in men; but it must be noticed that they are more intertwined and contorted than in men, and shrink together by reason of their shortness that they may, by their looseness, be better stretched out when necessary: and these vessels in women are carried in an oblique direction through the lesser bowels and t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es but are divided into two branches half way. The larger goes to the stones and forms a winding body, and wonderfully inoculates the lesser branches where it disperses itself, and especially at the higher part of the bottom of the womb, for its nourishment, and that part of the courses may pa.s.s through the vessels; and seeing that women's t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es are situated near the womb, for that cause those vessels do not fall from the peritoneum, nor do they make so much pa.s.sage as in men, as they do not extend to the share-bone.

The stones of woman, commonly called _t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es_, do not perform the same function as in men, for they are altogether different in position, size, temperature, substance, form and covering. They are situated in the hollow of the muscles of the loins, so that, by contracting greater heat, they may be more fruitful, their office being to contain the ova or eggs, one of which, being impregnated by the man's seed engenders the child. They are, however, different from those of the male in shape, because they are smaller and flatter at each end, and not so round or oval; the external superficies is also more unequal, and has the appearance of a number of k.n.o.bs or kernels mixed together.

There is a difference, also, in the substance, as they are much softer and more pliable, and not nearly so compact. Their size and temperature are also different for they are much colder and smaller than in men, and their covering or enclosure is likewise quite different; for as men's are wrapped in several covers, because they are very pendulous and would be easily injured unless they were so protected by nature, so women's stones, being internal and thus less subject to being hurt, are covered by only one membrane, and are likewise half covered by the peritoneum.

The ejaculatory vessels are two small pa.s.sages, one on either side, which do not differ in any respect from the spermatic veins in substance. They rise in one place from the bottom of the womb, and do not reach from their other extremity either to the stones or to any other part, but are shut up and impa.s.sable, and adhere to the womb as the colon does to the blind gut, and winding half way about; and though the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es are not close to them and do not touch them, yet they are fastened to them by certain membranes which resemble the wing of a bat, through which certain veins and arteries pa.s.sing from the end of the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es may be said to have their pa.s.sages going from the corners of the womb to the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es, and these ligaments in women are the _cremasters_[3] in men, of which I shall speak more fully when I come to describe the male parts of generation.

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