Outlines of the diseases of women / by John Phillips.

  • Phillips, John.
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Outlines of the diseases of women / by John Phillips. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    113/332 (page 93)
    CHAPTER VIII. MALFORMATIONS AND AFFECTIONS OF THE EXTERNAL ORGANS OF GENERATION. A. Malformations.—A reference to the development of these organs will indicate the various ways in which deviations from the normal can take place (p. 29); the following are the most common: (1) Complete atresia of the vulva ; (2) Persistence of the cloaca, in which the vagina and urethra, with the rectum, have one common opening; (3) Persistence of the urogenital sinus, into which, owing to non- development of the urethra, the bladder opens directly. (4) Hermaphroditism.—This term indicates the fact that one- individual is possessed of the genital organs of both sexes in a. more or less perfect form. A true hermaphrodite would therefore have one or both ovaries capable of secreting healthy ova, and one or both testes producing spermatozoa capable of fertilising them ; the existence of such cases is at least problematical, owing to want of sufficient evidence, and their further consideration is- therefore unnecessary. Spurious or False Hermaphroditism is a condition in which th& genital organs simulate those of the opposite sex; hence we may have: (a) Those cases in which the external genitals of a female individual resemble those of a male (Fig. 54). A female may be possessed of a very large clitoris and prepuce ; if in addition the labia are united in a thin median raphe the like- ness to a scrotum is evident; should the ovaries be prolapsed into the labia, and the clitoris be provided with a urethra] canal, both of which conditions are extremely rare, the difficulty of diagnosis, becomes manifestly great. (/3) When the external genitalia of a male resemble those of a female. The penis and prepuce may be very small, and if hypospadias be present and extensive enough to produce a cleft between the-