The external appearance of the private parts of a female, as given in the engraving, we will here particularize. The peculiar round and plump prominence at the lower extremity of the abdomen, is a thick layer of fatty matter over the pubic bone, called the Mons Veneris. This is usually covered with hair at the age of puberty. In some cases the hair grows very profusely, and to the length of six or eight inches. Others have but little hair, and some none at all. The growth of hair is usually considered the sign of womanhood, though it is really no proof of that condition. Many girls have a growth of hair over the Mons at the age of ten or eleven years, while the menstrual flow will not commence until some years after. The two outer lips of the part are also covered with hair. These are called Labia, and inside they have little glans or follicles which discharge a mucus of a peculiar smell, which is provided by Nature to keep the parts in health. Within these external lips or Labia, are smaller ones called the Nymphæ. In infants the Nymphæ can be plainly seen outside, as the Labia do not cover them; but as the child grows, the external lips gradually close, and in a perfectly-formed female, at the age of puberty, nothing can be seen but the outer lips, which are, or should be, hidden by the hair.
At the upper junction of the Nymphæ is the Clitoris, a very curious formation which resembles a miniature male penis. This is an organ which, when irritated, causes sexual desires. It is usually about the size of a pea, though in some cases it is larger. The growth of the Clitoris to an unnatural size is what has given rise to a belief in the existence of hermaphrodites, or persons of double sex. I can easily understand how these reports originated. A female infant with a Clitoris of a very large size would naturally induce such a belief by persons ignorant of physiology—for the Clitoris is always proportionably a great deal larger before puberty—and particularly so when the child is first born. In an unnatural growth, then, of this member, the private parts of an infant would certainly present a hermaphroditic appearance. It is almost unnecessary to say that no such human beings ever existed as hermaphrodites. Those that have been so called were females with an enlarged Clitoris. This enlargement being a source of some mortification to the girl as she grows to womanhood, it should be partially amputated, an operation which can be performed with perfect safety. Young girls of amorous desires get up a sexual excitement, and produce masturbation, by rubbing the Clitoris; and in boarding schools they often practice the habit upon one another until they cause repeated Orgasms, and in this manner injure their health. Many of the diseases of after life may be traced to such unnatural pranks—particularly the weakness which causes miscarriage and excessive flooding.
PHILOSOPHY OF SEXUAL DESIRES.
The sexual organs of man and woman are wonderfully adapted to each other, and have a perfect power of mutual attraction. Nature sacrifices every thing to reproduction: it is thus that we enjoy all strength, vigor and beauty, so as to excite us to contribute to the procreation of our species; and thus that such exquisite pleasure is associated with the copulative act. It is for this reason also that we experience so many sweet illusions in the brilliant season of our amours, and that we give way to others when our reproductive powers have failed. In a word, Nature always regards the species, and never the individual; and whatever we may say or think of our superiority over inferior animals, we cannot conceal from ourselves the fact that, like the brutes, we are influenced in our unions by the pleasure of sexual intercourse. It is useless to deny that the majority of marriages which are apparently based on the sentiment called love, are nothing more than the result of an involuntary obedience to the imperious voice of our sexual organs. A man admires the graceful figure, the voluptuous form, and the general female graces of a woman, and he at once desires to possess her person. This induces him to cultivate her acquaintance, and unless he finds something in her disposition positively disagreeable, ten to one he will offer her marriage. Who will deny that sexual desire was the moving cause of this connection? A woman meets a man of fine figure, noble gait and manner, broad chest, and elevated head, furnished with a luxuriant growth of hair. His eyes are full of fire, and he is amiable, gallant and polite. She at once feels a thrilling desire to become better acquainted with him. What is that but a sexual yearning? Thus far, certainly, no sentimental collusion can have occurred between them.
The philosophy of sexual desires has been frequently discussed by learned men, and interesting experiments have been made to test whether the attraction of the two sexes was not precisely the same in human beings as in the minor animals. These tests proved that our animal natures are not directed altogether by the intellect. We see young persons of opposite sex mutually caress and embrace each other by some mysterious influence, even before they are of sufficient age to experience sexual desires. This mutual attraction is attributed by some people to Animal Magnetism—the male being the positive, and the female the negative principle. We, however, believe it to be an instinctive sympathy; for experiments have been made which prove that the Generative Organs of either sex exercise a certain mysterious influence one upon the other. A French physiological writer says that two vigorous young persons were put in a semi-insensible state by the use of certain drugs. Being stripped and their private parts placed slightly in contact, (their heads being fully covered,) this slight touch instantly excited the sexual feeling. This experiment is reported in detail, and we do not doubt that it was bona-fide. The peculiar instinctive attraction in this case was so delicate that it acted almost like electricity to the male organ. Besides this instinctive attraction, the nervous sensibility is so constituted as to aid in the union of the sexes. In the present state of society, however, young people do not usually wait the slow process of Nature’s teachings, but gain their knowledge by a precocious association or under the instruction of their seniors. The sexual impulse, under such circumstances, is forced and unnatural, and is frequently the parent of incurable disease.
Coition, or sexual union, may be compared to a fit of epilepsy, or to an electrical shock. It entirely engages both the mind and the body; we neither hear nor see, but the soul is entirely absorbed in the act. When a man is performing this act, if his thoughts wander, the product will be feeble, and if his wife become pregnant the offspring will be inferior. This fact is applied to the offspring of great geniuses, who are supposed to be thinking of something else when they beget their children, and hence their descendants are often much below them in intellect. In further confirmation of this theory, history informs us that some of the greatest men the world ever saw were bastards—children begotten with vigor, and when the minds of the parents are supposed to have been absorbed in the one idea of a loving sexual embrace. Aristotle believed that the causes of deformed children, of monstrosities, and of all defective offspring, were in consequence of imperfect connections, or acts of generation when the minds of the parents were depressed by passion, anxiety, trouble, or any difficult or abstract matters.
Persons of moderate and regular habits, with strong and sound constitutions, beget healthful infants; while those whose habits are excessively mental, generally produce feeble offspring, though their constitutions and general health may be good.
Another cause of feeble children is the abuse of the function of generation by too frequent intercourse. In such cases the semen is thin and watery, being too suddenly secreted. Harvey says that to produce vigorous offspring, the spermatic fluid ought to remain two or three days in its receptacles for its thinner parts to become absorbed, when more vitality will be imparted to it, and hence the more vigorous will be the offspring.