MALFORMATION OF THE FEMALE SEXUAL ORGANS, RESULTING FROM ARREST OF DEVELOPMENT.

Abstract

Read in the Section of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women, American Medical Association, May, 1884. We learn the functions of an organ, not only by observing the part it performs when present in the system, but also by noting the consequences of its absence. The cases which we will consider render it evident that the excitement and increased vitality of the sexual organs by which menstruation is preceded are not dependent, as was once supposed, upon any congestion or distension of the vessels of the uterus, or upon any other change in the condition of that organ. They also show us that the peculiar external characteristics of the female form, and the possession of sexual sensibility, are not all owing to the uterus, and are in no way connected with its presence or development. Indeed there can be no doubt that the often quoted aphorism of Van Helmont—propter solum uterum