apparent danger, there
the most care and prudence are required to set things right.

And now, because she can never be a skilful midwife who knows nothing
but what is to be seen outwardly, I do not think it will be amiss but
rather very necessary, modestly to describe the generative parts of
women as they have been anatomised by learned men, and to show the use
of such vessels as contribute to generation.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XIII

_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,