It remains for us to examine the organs that furnish to man the means of continuing the species, and which, as constituting the prit.dpal differences of the two sexes, arc called the sexual organs. We have denominated them, after the modern French nomenclature, the or gans of reproduction.
The organs of reproduction are distinguished into male and female, according as they belong to the one sex or the other; and most anatomical writers describe the male and female organs in distinct sections. Cuvier, in his comprehensive view of these organs, divides them into preparatory and conservative organs, under which lie includes the testes, the seminal vesicles, the prostate gland, and the glands of Cowper, in the male, and the ovaries in the female ; copulative organs, in cluding the penis in males, and the vagina in females, and what he calls the educating organs, including the uterus and breasts of the female. In our examination of the organs, we shall, after the usual method, describe first the male, and then the female organs. It is not our intention to give a very minute account of any of these; and we shall be exceedingly brief on those which are obvious to the senses, as we apprehend that a par ticular description of them is unnecessary, and could serve no other purpose than to gratify the prurient cu riosity of the sensualist.
These organs are partly contained, along with the urinary organs, within that cavity of the body called the pelvis. In the female this cavity contains all the most important organs, but in the male, only those which are attached to the neck of the urinary bladder, are placed within the pelvis.
The pelvis is situated at the sacral part of the belly, and may even be considered as the sacral extremity of this cavity. It is fOrincd by four bones, viz. by the sa (rum and rocry r, forming the dorsal side of the caNity, and the ossa innominata, constituting the sternal and lateral parts, the former being bounded chiefly by those portions called ilia, or haunch-bones, and the latter by the pubes or share-bones. The diameter of the pelvis at its atlantal border is from side to side, or from one haunch-bone to the other; but at the sacral part, its diameters are nearly equal. A horizontal sec tion of the Cavity is of an irregular oval figure. The pelvis is Most
shallow at its sternal part, and deepest at the sides.
The bones that compose this cavity are, in the adult. firmly united to each other ; but this union is not so firm between the pubes, as between the osAa inizominater and the sacrum. What is called the symjihysis Jtubis, or articulation of the share-bones, is formed by a ligamcnto cartilaginous substance, situated between the mesial extremities of these bones, and in certain cases, admit ting sonic degree of motion, or even separation. This cartilaginous substance is sometimes single, at others double, and when cut into, is found to contain within it a small quantity of From examining the dried bones of the pelvis, while in connection, we should be led to suppose, that this cavity is very large ; but, in the natural state of the bodv, the extent of the cavity is greatly diminished by the muscles and membranes that line the central sur faces of the hones, and pass from one process to another.
It is chiefly in the woman that the pelvis is an object of particular attention, and we have formerly remarked, that the female is much larger than the male pelvis (see p. 728). The characteristics of a well-formed female pelvis, and the morbid varieties of its component bones, will be considered under MrDwiFEnv.
Of the Male Organs of Reproduction.
The male organs are very properly divided by Cuvier into preparative and copulative. The principal agent in reproduction is the seminal fluid, which is prepared in the glandular bodies called testes. This fluid is con veyed through a long winding tube passing from the testes into the belly to the seminal vesicles, where it is collected, either generally or occasionally, and whence it is, during coition, poured into the urethra. The se minal fluid is then the essential agent, and the testes the essential organs of generation ; but there are other fluids which doubtless have their use in this function. These are prepared by the prostate gland that surrounds the neck of the urinary bladder, by two small glandular bodies situated within the urethra, and called, from their discoverer, Cop'per's glands, and probably from the seminal vesicles.