Certainly this is the process as observed
in horses, cattle, goats, etc., and it seems likely something
analogous is natural in man."
While it is easily possible to carry to excess a view which would
make the woman rather than the man the active agent in coitus
(and it may be recalled that in the Cebidae the penis, as also the
clitoris, is furnished with a bone), there is probably an element
of truth in the belief that the vagina shares in the active part
which, there can now be little doubt, is played by the uterus in
detumescence. Such a view certainly enables us to understand how
it is that semen effused on the exterior sexual organs can be
conveyed to the uterus.
It was indeed the failure to understand the vital activity of the
semen and the feminine genital canal, co-operating together
towards the junction of sperm cell and germ cell, which for so
long stood in the way of the proper understanding of conception.
Even the genius of Harvey, which had grappled successfully with
the problem of the circulation, failed in the attempt to
comprehend the problem of generation. Mainly on account of this
difficulty, he was unable to see how the male element could
possibly enter the uterus, although he devoted much observation
and study to the question.
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