The Philadelphia practice of midwifery / by Charles D. Meigs.

  • Meigs, Charles D. (Charles Delucena), 1792-1869.
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Philadelphia practice of midwifery / by Charles D. Meigs. 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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    THE ORGANS OF GENERATION. The organs of generation are divided into external and in- ternal, the latter term being applied to those which are contain- ed within the cavity of the pelvis, and the former referring to those that appear upon the external surface of the pelvis. The external sexual organs, in the aggregate, are indicated by the word Pudendum; a word very happily selected as a re- ference to, rather than a direct denomination of, a part of the body which the sex, without exception even of many barbarous tribes, endeavour modestly to conceal. We are told that the first sinful indulgence of the human appetites, was succeeded by the deepest consciousness of exposure upon this subject, and the fig-leaf, which concealed the shame of the first woman, is a sim- ple expression or emblem of female delicacy. The Venus de Medici is not less expressive of female modesty, than of the perfection of the female form: its modesty is the key to that inimitable, universal and pervading beauty, which places it at the head of the ancient works of art, and renders the statue at once a truth in morals, and a profound homage to one of the best attributes of woman. Notwithstanding the aversion of females to every allusion to the pathological or obstetric affections of these organs, it is un- avoidably incumbent on the practitioner to make himself ac- quainted with their anatomical structure, since they are the seats of diseases and accidents, and the agents of pathological and surgical processes which the practitioner is often called