Part 4 (1/2)

”And what is the furniture in the different stories?”

”O, the upper story is called the thorax, and the one big room in it is the thoracic cavity. It contains the heart and lungs. The next story below is the abdominal cavity and it has a number of articles of furniture, the liver, the stomach, the spleen, the bowels, etc. Then the lower story is--O, I've forgotten what it is called.”

”The lower story is called the pelvis.”

”O, yes, and the pelvic cavity contains the reservoirs for waste material. I remember you told me that once.”

”That is right. The pelvic cavity contains the bladder, which is the reservoir for waste fluid, and the r.e.c.t.u.m, the outlet for waste solids.

But it contains more than these. It is here in the pelvis that these organs of which you have not heard are located. You remember when you asked me about yourself and how you came into the world I told you of a little room in mother's body where you lived and grew until you were large enough to live your own independent existence. Did you ever wonder where this room is?”

”Why, I never thought much about it. I guess I just thought it was in the abdominal cavity. Isn't it?”

[Ill.u.s.tration]

”No, the room is a little sac that lies here in the pelvis. I can best explain it to you by a picture. Here it is. You see it looks like a pear hanging with the small end down. It lies just between the bladder and the r.e.c.t.u.m, and a pa.s.sage leads up to it.”

”O, I see. Doesn't the bladder empty itself through that pa.s.sage?”

”No, the outlet to the bladder is just at the very entrance to this pa.s.sage, but does not open into the pa.s.sage at all. This pa.s.sage is called the v.a.g.i.n.a, and the little room has two names. One is Latin, uterus; the other is Saxon, womb--it means the place where things are brought to life. The Latin word is used by scientists, but the Saxon word is used in the Bible and by poets. Do you remember when Nicodemus came to Jesus that he was told he must be born again, and he said in surprise, 'Can a man enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?'”

”O, I see now what he meant. I could not understand it before. Of course, he knew that was impossible, and so he could not see what Jesus meant.”

”David says, 'Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.' Poets sometimes speak of the womb of the morning, meaning the place where morning lies and grows until it is ready to burst forth in beauty on the world.”

”I like the Saxon word better than the Latin one, don't you?”

”Yes, but as scientists use the Latin word we shall use that, so that we will know how to talk on these subjects scientifically. The uterus hangs suspended by two broad ligaments (marked _ll_ in the picture).

There are also round ligaments from the back and front which hold it loosely in place. On the back of each broad ligament is an oval body called the ovary (marked _o_).

”Do you remember once seeing in a hen that Ellen was preparing for dinner a great number of eggs of all sizes? That was the hen's ovary.

_Ovum_ means an egg, and _ovary_ means the place of the eggs.”

”O, mother, women don't have eggs, do they? I don't like that.”

”Well, if you do not like to use the word egg we can say _ovum_, which, you know, is the Latin word for egg. The plural is _ova_. Or we may call the _ovum_ the germ, which means the primary source. The ovum or germ is a very tiny thing, so small that it cannot be seen without a microscope; 240 laid side by side would make only one inch in length.”

”O, mother, that is wonderful.”

”Yes, dear. The whole process of life is very wonderful and very beautiful. The uterus and ovaries belong to what is called the reproductive system. As I said, until now your vital forces have been employed in keeping you alive. Your nutritive system, your muscular system, your nervous system and so on, have all been busy taking care of you only; but soon your reproductive system will awaken and begin to take on activity.”

”And what does that mean, mother?”

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ova.]

”It means that you are entering on what is known as the maternal period of your life; are actually becoming a woman with all a woman's power of becoming a mother.”

”But you don't mean that a girl of fourteen could become a mother?”

”Yes, it might be possible; but no girl of fourteen should be a mother, for she is not fully developed and her children will not be strong as if she had not married until after she were twenty.”