These two
ligaments are long, round and nervous, and pretty big in their
beginning near the matrix, hollow in their rise, and all along the os
pubis, where they are a little smaller and become flat, the better to be
inserted in the manner aforesaid. It is by their means the womb is
hindered from rising too high. Now, although the womb is held in its
natural situation by means of these four ligaments, it has liberty
enough to extend itself when pregnant, because they are very loose, and
so easily yield to its distension. But besides these ligaments, which
keep the womb, as it were, in a poise, yet it is fastened for greater
security by its neck, both to the bladder and rectum, between which it
is situated. Whence it comes to pass, that if at any time the womb be
inflamed, it communicates the inflammation to the neighbouring part.
Its use or proper action in the work of generation, is to receive and
retain the seed, and deduce from it power and action by its heat, for
the generation of the infant; and it is, therefore, absolutely necessary
for the conservation of the species. It also seems by accident to
receive and expel the impurities of the whole body, as when women have
abundance of whites, and to purge away, from time to time, the
superfluity of the blood, as when a woman is not with child.
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