The Female Physician / Containing all the diseases incident to that sex, in virgins, wives, and widows; together with their causes and symptoms, their degrees of danger, and respective methods of prevention and cure: to which is added, the whole art of new improv'd midwifery; comprehending the necessary qualifications of a midwife, and particular directions for laying women, in all cases of difficult and preternatural births; together with the diet and regimen of both the mother and child.

by John Maubray

IN Maids, the VAGINA is about Five Inches Long, and one and a half Wide: But in CHILD-BEARING-WOMEN, it cannot be determin’d; because it lengthens in the time of PREGNANCY, and dilates in time of BIRTH; having likewise (in all) some little Holes or Ducts in it, which discharge a mucous Liquor. The VAGINA Serves also, in fine, for a necessary Conduit to the MENSTRUA and LOCHIA, as it does for a proper Passage to the INFANT, &c.

THESE are, in short, all the external Parts of GENERATION in Women; and these have all their proper respective Functions assign’d them by Nature; contributing conjunctly and severally to the Charms of COPULATION: Which ACTION alters the very Course of the Blood, and Motion of the Animal SPIRITS; and consequently sets all the describ’d Parts in full AGITATION. Namely, thus

THE Labia dilate: the Orifice swells: the Nymphæ give way: the Clitoris (of exquisite Sensibility) erects: The Glands (by a Protuberancy of the Parts) yield their succous Contents: The Vagina draws close: The Fibres of the Womb complicate to open its Orifice: The Branches of the Spermatick Artery contract to draw the Extremities of the Tubes to the OVARIA, as they carry the Seed to them: The Seed circulating in the Veins, which open in the Cavity of the VAGINA and MATRIX, it ferments immediately with the Mass of Blood: This Fermentation swells the Membranes of the Tubes, opens the Cavity of the Womb, and disposes All perfectly for the right Reception of the impregnated Egg.

FROM hence we may plainly see, in what a miraculous Order and Manner, all These Parts minister, and are subservient unto that (yet more) admirable and wonderful Body the Womb. Which being thus in brief anatomically described, I come next in Course to

CHAP. VI.
Of the Internal Parts of GENERATION.

IN discoursing of These, I shall begin with the chief Part, to which the rest are but Subservients.

FIRST then, the MATRIX or Womb, is situated in the upper Part of the Cavity of the PELVIS, or Bason, between the Bladder and Streight Gut. It is placed there in the Middle of the HYPOGASTRIUM, for the Convenience of Copulation, and the more easy and ready Extrusion of the Infant.

SECONDLY, The Bones of the PELVIS (as described hereafter below) stand as a Rampart, fencing it against all external Injuries; That is to say, the OS PUBIS protects it before; the SACRUM behind; and the ILIUM on each Side: Like as the BLADDER and RECTUM on the other Hand defend this Noble Part again from the Rigidity of these Bones.

THIRDLY, the Figure of the Womb, from its internal Orifice to its Bottom, in a Natural State, resembles a large compress’d PEAR. Its Length is about three Inches; its Breadth two in the Hinder, and one in the Fore-Part; its Thickness half an Inch large: But I take the Dimensions of it, in general, to differ accord-to the Age and Constitution of the Body.