ut of secretions,
others in the rhythmic genital contractions; the sexual parts may,
however, be copiously bathed in mucus for an indefinitely long period
before the final stage of detumescence is achieved, and the rhythmic
contractions are also taking place at a somewhat early period; in neither
respect is there any obvious increase at the final moment of orgasm. In
women this would seem to be more conspicuously a nervous manifestation
than in men. On the subjective side it is very pronounced, with its
feeling of relieved tension and agreeable repose--a moment when, as one
woman expresses it, together with intense pleasure, there is, as it were,
a floating up into a higher sphere, like the beginning of chloroform
narcosis--but on the objective side this culminating moment is less easy
to define.

Various observations and remarks made during the past two or
three centuries by Bond, Valisneri, Dionis, Haller, Guenther, and
Bischoff, tending to show a sucking action of the uterus in both
women and other female animals, have been brought together by
Litzmann in R. Wagner's _Handwoerterbuch der Physiologie_ (1846,
vol. iii, p. 53). Litzmann added an experience of his own: "I had
an opportunity lately, while examining a young and very erethic
woman, to observe how suddenly the uterus assumed a more erect
position, and descended deeper in the pelvis; the lips of the
womb became equal in length, the cervix rounded, softer, and more
easily reached by the finger, and at the same time a high state
of sexual excitement was revealed by the respiration and voice."

The general belief still remained, however, that the woman's part
in conjugation is passive, and that it is entirely by the energy
of the male organ and of the male sexual elements, the
spermatozoa, that conjunction with the germ cell is attained.
According to this theory, it was believed that the spermatozoa
were, as Wilkinson expresses it, in a history of opinion on this
question, "endowed with some sort of intuition or instinct; that
they would turn in the direction of the os uteri, wading through
the acid mucus of the vagina; travel patiently upward and around
the vaginal portion of the uterus; enter the uterus and proceed
onward in search of the waiting ovum." (A.D. Wilkinson,
"Sterility in the Female," _Transactions of the Lincoln Medical
Society_, Nebraska, 1896.)