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The External, and
Internal Organs of Generation in Women.
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.
