that at the end of two or three months it is reduced to a small scar and later cannot be noticed at all. The corpus luteum of the pregnant woman keeps on increasing until the end of the second month, remains about the same size [55]until the end of the sixth month, and only then begins gradually to diminish. The corpus luteum of the non-pregnant woman, that is, the one following menstruation, is called false corpus luteum; the corpus luteum following pregnancy is called a true corpus luteum. The corpus luteum acts like a gland and elaborates a secretion which has an influence on the circulation in the uterus and on menstruation. It probably possesses other properties, with which we are not yet quite familiar. The corpora lutea of various animals are now prepared in powder or tablet form and used in medicine in the treatment of certain diseases of women. SUBCHAPTER B FUNCTION OF THE OTHER GENITAL ORGANS Function of the Fallopian Tubes. The function of the Fallopian tubes or oviducts as they are sometimes called is to catch the ovum as it bursts through the ovary and to conduct it from the ovary into the uterus. It is while the ovum is in the narrow lumen of the tube that the spermatozoon which has travelled up from the uterus usually finds it, and it is in the tube, near its entrance to the womb, that impregnation usually takes place. After the ovum [56]is impregnated or fecundated, it slowly moves down to the uterus, where it attaches itself and remains and grows for nine months, until it is ready to come out and start an independent life. The uterus or womb is the house of the embryo almost from the moment of conception to the moment of birth. Within the thick warm sheltered walls of the uterus the child grows, develops, eats and breathes, until all its organs and functions have reached such a stage of perfection that it can live by itself and for itself. And this may be said to be the sole function of the uterus, or at least its sole useful function. For the other function of the uterus, menstruation, cannot be said to be a necessary or a useful function. It is a normal function because it occurs regularly in every healthy woman during her childbearing period, but not every normal function is a necessary or useful function. Not everything that is is right or useful. Function of the Vagina. The vagina is the canal in which sexual intercourse takes place. It receives the male organ (penis) during the sexual act, and serves as a temporary repository for the male semen. After the spermatozoa have reached the uterus, the vagina has no further function to perform. Functions of the Vulva, Clitoris, and Mons [57]Veneris. The vulva and the clitoris have no special functions to perform; but in them, in the clitoris particularly, but also in the labia minora, resides the feeling of voluptuousness, the pleasurable sensation experienced during the sexual act. Another seat of voluptuousness in the woman is located in the cervix of the uterus. 15 The mons Veneris has no special physiological function to perform, but it as well as the vulva serve as strong points of attraction for the male sex. While the entire female body is attractive to the male, and vice versa, there are certain zones which are especially attractive or exciting. Such zones or areas are called erogenous zones--the word erogenous means love-generating. The vulva and the mons Veneris are the strongest erogenous zones; other erogenous zones are the lips, the breasts,
etc. Function of the Breasts. The function of the breasts is to nurse or suckle the young on the mother's milk until they are able to live on other food. The other name for breasts is mammary gland (in Latin, mamma--breast), and all animals who suckle their young are called mammals or mammalia. Besides its milk secreting function, the breasts constitute a strong erogenous zone; they are a point of strong attraction for the male sex, many men being more attracted by well-developed breasts than [58]by a pretty face. There is a good biological reason for this. Well developed breasts indicate that the other sexual organs are well developed and that the woman will make a satisfactory wife and satisfactory mother. Considering then the importance of the breasts in attracting a husband and their function in nursing the young, also their erogenous properties, it is perfectly proper to class them among the reproductive organs. SUBCHAPTER C THE ORGASM The culmination of the act of sexual intercourse is called the orgasm. It is the moment at which the pleasurable sensation is at its highest point, the body experiences a thrill, there is a spasmodic contraction in the genital organs, and there is a secretion of fluid from the genital glands and mucous membranes. This fluid in women is not a vital fluid like the semen in man; it is merely mucus, and in some women it is very slight in amount or altogether absent. Adult women who live without sexual relations occasionally have sexual or erotic dreams; that is, they dream that they are in the company of men, playing or having relations with [59]them. Such dreams are usually accompanied by an orgasm or an orgastic feeling, and by a discharge of mucus, the same as in sexual intercourse. Such a discharge of mucus during sleep is called an emission or pollution. In the male sex pollutions play an important role (see the author's "Sex Knowledge for men"), because the semen is a vital fluid, and if it is lost too frequently the system is put under a heavy drain. In boys and men the pollutions or night losses may occur several times a week or even every night, or several times a night. When they occur with such frequency the man may become a wreck. Not so with women. First, pollutions or night dreams in women are much more rare than they are in men; and second, as just mentioned, the fluid secreted by woman during intercourse or during an erotic dream is not of a vital character, as the semen is in man; it is mucus, and the secretion of a mucous fluid, even if somewhat excessive, does not constitute a drain on the system. For this reason women can stand frequently repeated sex relations and emissions or pollutions much better than men can. [60] SUBCHAPTER D THE SECONDARY SEX CHARACTERS The sex organs constitute the primary sex characters. It is they that distinguish primarily one sex from another. But there are numerous other sex characters or sex differences which while not so important serve to differentiate the sexes, at the same time forming points of attraction between one sex and another. For instance, the beard and mustache are a distinct male characteristic and constitute one of the secondary male sex characters. The secondary sex characters are very numerous; one might say that each one of the billions of cells in the body bears the impress of the sex to which it belongs. First, the skeleton. The entire female skeleton differs from the male skeleton; all the bones are smaller and more gracile; the pelvis, as we have seen before, is shallower and wider. Then the muscles are smaller and more rounded. The entire contour of the body is rounded rather than angular as in man. The skin is finer, softer, more delicate. The hair on the head is longer and of a finer texture, while over the body the hair is also finer and less abundant. The voice is finer, more pleasant, and of a higher pitch (soprano). The breasts are well [61]developed, and serve an important purpose, while in men they are rudimentary. The breathing is also different; woman breathes principally with the upper part of the chest, man with the lower. The brain is smaller and its convolutions somewhat less complex in woman. Woman differs considerably from man not only physically, as we have seen, but also mentally and emotionally. But into this phase of the subject we will not enter, except to remark that it is foolish to speak of the superiority or inferiority of one sex to another. 16 In some respects man is greatly superior to woman, in others he is inferior; on the whole the sexes balance one another pretty well, and while the sexes are not and never will be exactly alike, we have no right to speak of the inferiority of one sex to another. We recognize that the sexes are different, but they complement one another, and the claim of the reactionary and of the woman-hater that woman is an inferior creature is just as senseless as is the claim made by some ultra-militant feminists that woman is the superior and man the inferior. FOOTNOTES: [3] The ovum is really the fully mature egg ready for fecundation; before maturity it should not be called ovum but oocyte; and in advanced treatises it is so referred to. But here ovum will do for both the unripe and ripe egg. [62] Chapter FourToC THE SEX INSTINCT Universality of the Sex Instinct--Not Responsible for Our Thoughts and Feelings. The sex instinct, which runs all through nature from the lowest animal to the highest, is the inborn impulse, craving or desire which one sex has for the other: the male for the female and the female for the male. This instinct, this desire for the opposite sex, which is born with us and which manifests itself at a very early age, is not anything to be ashamed of. There is nothing disgraceful, nothing sinful in it. It is a normal, natural, healthy instinct, implanted in us by nature for various reasons, and absolutely indispensable for the perpetuation of the race. If there were anything to be ashamed of, it would be the lack of this sex instinct, for without it the race would quickly die out. Not Responsible for Thoughts and Feelings. It is necessary to impress this point, because many girls and women, whose minds have been perverted by a vicious so-called morality, worry themselves to illness, brood and become hypochondriac because [63]they think they have committed a grievous sin in experiencing a desire for sexual relations or for the embrace of a certain man. Altogether it is necessary
