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.

The lips of the womb, which appear next, disclose its neck, if they are
separated, and two things may be observed in them, which are the neck
itself and the _hymen_, or more properly, the _claustrum virginale_, of
which I have spoken before. By the neck of the womb we must understand
the channel that lies between the above-mentioned knobs and the inner
bone of the womb, which receives the penis like a sheath, and so that it
may be more easily dilated by the pleasure of procreation, the substance
is sinewy and a little spongy. There are several folds or pleats in this
cavity, made by tunicles, which are wrinkled like a full blown rose. In
virgins they appear plainly, but in women who are used to copulation
they disappear, so that the inner side of the neck of the womb appears
smooth, but in old women it is more hard and gristly. But though this
channel is sometimes crooked and sinks down yet at the times of
copulation, labour, or of the monthly flow, it is erected or distended,
which overtension occasions the pain in childbirth.

The hymen, or _claustrum virginale_, is that which closes the neck of
the womb, and is broken by the first act of copulation; its use being
rather to check the undue menstrual flow in virgins, rather than to
serve any other purpose, and usually when it is broken, either by
copulation, or by any other means, a small quantity of blood flows from
it, attended with some little pain. From this some observe that between
the folds of the two tunicles, which constitute the neck of the womb
there are many veins and arteries running along, and arising from, the
vessels on both sides of the thighs, and so passing into the neck of the
womb, being very large; and the reason for this is, that the neck of the
bladder requires to be filled wit