To assert that whenever in women who have
not been pregnant the marked protrusion of the inner lips beyond the outer
lips means that at some period manipulation has been practiced with or
without the production of sexual excitement is to make too absolute a
statement. It is highly probable that the nymphae, like the clitoris, are
congenitally more prominent in some of the lower human races, as they are
also in the apes; among the Fuegians, for instance, according to Hyades
and Deniker, the labia minora descend lower than in Europeans, although
there is not the slightest reason to suppose that these women practice any
manipulations. Among European women, again, the nymphae sometimes protrude
very prominently beyond the labia majora in women who are organically of
somewhat infantile type; this occurs in cases in which we may be convinced
that no manipulations have ever been practiced.[92]
It is difficult to speak very decisively as to the function of the labia
minora. They doubtless exert some amount of protective influence over the
entrance to the vagina, and in this way correspond to the lips of the
mouth after which they are called. They fulfill, however, one very
definite though not obviously important function which is indicated by the
mythologic name they have received.
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