Woman | Page 8

has to go through a period
called the menopause, which may last one or two years and which may
bring discomforts and dangers of its own. Man does not have to go
through such a distinct period of demarcation separating his sexual
from his non-sexual life. Altogether it cannot be denied that woman is
much more a slave of her sex nature than man is of his. Yes, Nature has
handicapped woman much more heavily than she has man.
In short, both in view of the fact that sexual ignorance with its possible
missteps has much more disastrous consequences for the girl than it has
for the boy, and in view of the fact that the sex instinct and its physical
and psychic manifestations occupy a much more important part in
woman's life than they do in the life of man, we consider the necessity
of sex instruction much greater in the case of woman than in the case of
man. I do not wish to be misunderstood as underestimating the need of

sex instruction for the male--only I consider the need even greater in
the case of the female.
CHAPTER TWO
THE FEMALE SEX ORGANS: THEIR ANATOMY
The Internal Sex Organs--The Ovaries--The Fallopian Tubes--The
Uterus--The Divisions of the Uterus--Anteversion, Anteflexion,
Retroversion, Retroflexion, of the Uterus--Endometritis--The
Vagina--The Hymen--Imperforate Hymen--The External Genitals--The
Vulva, Labia Majora, Labia Minora, the Mons Veneris, the Clitoris, the
Urethra--The Breasts--The Pelvis--The Difference Between the Male
and Female Pelvis.
The organs which primarily distinguish one sex from the other are the
sex organs. It is by the aid of the sex organs that children are begotten
and brought into the world, that the race is reproduced and perpetuated.
It is for this reason that the sex organs are also called the Reproductive
Organs.
The first thing we must do is to become familiar with the structure and
location of the sex organs; in other words, we must get a fair idea of
their Anatomy.
The female sex organs, also called the reproductive or generative
organs, are divided into internal and external. The internal are the most
important and consist of: the ovaries, Fallopian tubes, uterus or womb,
and vagina. The external sex organs of the female are: the vulva,
hymen, and clitoris. Among the external organs are also generally
included the mons Veneris and the breasts or mammary glands.
SUBCHAPTER A
THE INTERNAL SEX ORGANS
[Illustration: OVARY.]

=The Ovaries.= The ovaries are the essential organs of reproduction.
For it is they that generate the eggs, or ova, or ovules, which, after
becoming fertilized or fecundated by the spermatozoa of the male,
develop into children. Without the ovaries of the female, the same as
without the testicles of the male (to which they correspond), no
children could be begotten, and the entire human race would quickly
disappear from our planet. The ovaries are two in number; they are
embedded in the broad ligaments which support the womb in the pelvis,
one on each side of the womb. They are of a grayish or whitish pink
color, and are about an inch and a half long, three-quarters of an inch
wide, and one-third of an inch thick. They weigh from one-eighth to
one-quarter of an ounce. Their surface is either smooth or rough and
puckered. Think of a large blanched almond and you will have a pretty
fair idea of the size and shape of an ovary.
=The Fallopian Tubes.= The Fallopian tubes (so called from Fallopius,
a great anatomist, who discovered them; also called oviducts: egg
conductors, because they conduct the eggs from the ovary into the
uterus) are two very thin tubes, extending one from each upper angle of
the womb to the ovaries; but at their ovarian end they expand into a
fringed and trumpet-shaped extremity. The fringes are referred to as
fimbria. They are about five inches long and only about one-sixteenth
of an inch in diameter; the function of the tubes is to catch the ova as
they burst forth from the ovaries and to convey them to the uterus.
Taking into consideration the very narrow lumen, or caliber, of the
Fallopian tubes, it is easy to understand why even a very slight
inflammation is apt to clog them up, to seal their mouths or openings,
thus rendering the woman sterile, or incapable of having children. For,
if the Fallopian tubes are "clogged" up, the eggs, or ova, have no way
of reaching the uterus.
The Greek name for the Fallopian tube is salpinx (salpinx in Greek
means tube). An inflammation of the Fallopian tube is therefore called
salpingitis. (A salpingitis has the same effect in causing sterility in the
female as has an epididymitis in the male.) Salpingectomy is the cutting
away of the whole or of a piece of the Fallopian tube (corresponds to