A treatise on the diseases of females / by William P. Dewees.

  • Dewees, William P. (William Potts), 1768-1841.
Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the diseases of females / by William P. Dewees. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    ON THE DISEASES OF FEMAL.ES. CHAPTER I. OF THE PECULIARITIES OF THE FEMALE SYSTEM. However powerful the influence of education and modes of life may be upon the human frame* they are not capable of effect- ing so great a change upon the female constitution, as to deprive it of its distinctive peculiarities. Yet we are aware that much is done by these great agents ; and that when they have been em- ployed under equal circumstances, for an equal period, an ap- proximation of physical and moral similarity has been observ- ed ; though they have never been able to alter the general cha- racter of the female so much, as to leave the slightest doubt to which of the sexes the individual belongs, even independently of sexual peculiarity. The intentions of nature in the formation of man, are not, nor cannot be fulfilled, by one sex alone ; both must concur in this great object; and it would be idle to decide, by any process of reasoning, to which is assigned the most important role in this great work. Participation is essential to the end in view ; and to each is allotted respective duties ; duties which cannot be ex- changed, or even varied ; for they are immutable. To preserve, therefore, the moral and physical distinctions in his favourite creatures, and to prevent either neglect or confusion in the per- formance of the duties assigned to them, the Deity has imposed such distinctness of organization upon the sexes, as defies aliena- C