"
* * * * *
A
GUIDE TO CHILDBEARING
WOMEN
* * * * *
BOOK I
CHAPTER I
SECTION I.--_Of the Womb._
In this chapter I am to treat of the womb, which the Latins call
_matrix_. Its parts are two; the mouth of the womb and the bottom of it.
The mouth is an orifice at the entrance into it, which may be dilated
and shut together like a purse; for though in the act of copulation it
is big enough to receive the glans of the yard, yet after conception, it
is so close and shut, that it will not admit the point of a bodkin to
enter; and yet again, at the time of a woman's delivery, it is opened to
such an extraordinary degree, that the child passeth through it into the
world; at which time this orifice wholly disappears, and the womb seems
to have but one great cavity from the bottom to the entrance of the
neck. When a woman is not with child, it is a little oblong, and of
substance very thick and close; but when she is with child it is
shortened, and its thickness diminished proportionably to its
distension; and therefore it is a mistake of anatomists who affirm, that
its substance waxeth thicker a little before a woman's labour; for any
one's reason will inform him, that the more distended it is, the thinner
it must be; and the nearer a woman is to the time of her delivery the
shorter her womb must be extended.
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