The Works of Aristotle the Famous Philosopher: Containing his Complete Masterpiece and Family Physician; his Experienced Midwife, his Book of Problems and his Remarks on Physiognomy — John Shaqi
The Works of Aristotle the Famous Philosopher: Containing his Complete Masterpiece and Family Physician; his Experienced Midwife, his Book of Problems and his Remarks on Physiognomy
Philosophy
The Works of Aristotle the Famous Philosopher: Containing his Complete Masterpiece and Family Physician; his Experienced Midwife, his Book of Problems and his Remarks on Physiognomy
Human beings; Mind and body; Reproduction
If it were not for the public benefit, especially for that of the
professors and practitioners of the art of midwifery, I would refrain
from treating the secrets of Nature, because they may be turned to
ridicule by lascivious and lewd people. But as it is absolutely
necessary that they should be known for the public good, I will not omit
them because some may make a wrong use of them. Those parts which can be
seen at the lowest part of the stomach are the _fissure magna_, or the
_great cleft_, with its _labia_ or lips, the _Mons Veneris_, or Mountain
of Venus, and the hair. These together are called the _pudenda_, or
things to be ashamed of because when they are exposed they cause a woman
_pudor_, or shame. The _fissure magna_ reaches from the lower part of
the _os pubis_, to within an inch of the _anus_, but it is less and
closer in virgins than in those who have borne children, and has two
lips, which grow thicker and fuller towards the pubis, and meeting on
the middle of the _os pubis_, form that rising hill which is called the
_Mons Veneris_, or the Hill of Venus.
Next come the _Nymphae_ and the _Clitoris_, the former of which is a
membrany and moist substance, spongy, soft and partly fleshy, of a red
colour and in the shape of two wings, which are joined at an acute angle
at their base, producing a fleshy substance there which covers the
clitoris, and sometimes they extend so far, that an incision is required
to make room for a man's instrument of generation.
The _Clitoris_ is a substance in the upper part of the division where
the two wings meet, and the seat of venereal pleasure, being like a
man's _penis_ in situation, substance, composition and power of
erection, growing sometimes to the length of two inches out of the body,
but that never happens except through extreme lustfulness or some
extraordinary accident. This _clitoris_ consists of two spongy and
skinny bodies, containing a distinct original from the _os pubis_, its
tip being covered with a tender skin, having a hole or passage like a
man's yard or _penis_, although not quite through, in which alone, and
in its size it differs from it.
The next things are the fleshy knobs of the great neck of the womb, and
these knobs are behind the wings and are four in number, resembling
myrtle berries, and being placed quadrangularly one against the other,
and here the orifice of the bladder is inserted, which opens into the
fissures, to evacuate the urine, and one of these knobs is placed before
it, and closes up the passage in order to secure it from cold, or any
suchlike inconvenience.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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