CHAPTER 9
How God Designed Sex
MAN HAS PRODUCED MANY HIGHLY complicated mechanisms out of matter he
has appropriated from the ground.
The huge, intricately designed modern
newspaper and magazine presses bring exclamations of amazement from
visitors seeing one for the first time.
I am reminded of this, because
we have a number of these big magazine presses in our enlarged printing
plants in Radlett, England; and North Sydney, Australia; and,
previously, in Pasadena, California.
Awe-Inspiring Mechanism
But the largest, most complicated machines man has designed pale to
insignificance beside the most wonderful of all mechanisms -- the HUMAN
BODY AND MIND! This awe-inspiring mechanism also was formed from matter
out of the ground.
It was the supreme MASTERPIECE of God's great
creative handiwork! The Almighty formed man after His own likeness! And
His SPIRITUAL CREATION is still in process! God reveals much about
Himself! He is composed of Spirit -- not matter.
He is a God of Supreme
MIND.
He tells us He has eyes, ears, nose, mouth.
He has arms and legs
-- feet and hands! He wrote the Ten Commandments on stone tablets with
His own finger! The marvelous human body is formed and shaped like God,
unlike any other creature! Yet God, being Spirit, possesses inherent
eternal life.
He has endowed MAN with only a limited physical existence,
sustained chemically, in principle, much like the motor in your car.
So
God designed in the human body two basic types of systems.
One is the
life-sustaining apparatus.
This includes the highly complicated
digestive, circulatory, respiratory and other systems.
These are
coordinated in functioning by the nervous system, which, in turn, is
directly connected with the mind.
The other basic system is the genital,
or sex system, making humans male and female.
This has no direct part in
sustaining the individual's existence.
It serves to perpetuate, not the
individual, but the race.
But it also generates love and a desire to
marry a certain one, and stimulates marital love to preserve the home
and family.
This genital system, too, is connected by the nervous system
directly with the mind.
These two general systems serve different
purposes, yet there is a connection between the two.
The genital
apparatus exercises a considerable influence on the life-sustaining
functions.
The female sex hormones cause a woman's body and mind to be
feminine.
The male sex hormones cause a man's body and mind to be
masculine.
Also there is a closer analogy between male and female sex
organs and sex functioning than is generally understood.
It is the
genital system that we need here to describe.
We shall use, in this
description of sex anatomy and functioning, the medical, or scientific,
terminology.
I strongly urge all parents to learn these terms, and to
use them in teaching their children.
If it were not entirely too
embarrassing, a social gathering could be given a hilarious evening by
each, one at a time, saying right out loud the names for sex organs and
functions -- especially the eliminative functions -- which their mothers
taught them! Probably no two people at the party would reveal the same
terminology.
Every young mother seems to think up some new outlandish
names for such things.
It becomes a sort of secret language.
If I might,
at this point, be permitted one digression intended to be humorous, I
should like to mention the cute saying of a year-and-a-half-old little
girl.
Her mother had tried to break her of bed-wetting by making a
shaming face and uttering a sound something like "kh -- kh -- kh --
.
" In her baby talk this little girl soon began to call this
particular means of elimination by a term she pronounced "kuh"
-- almost like "koo.
" Then one day, for the first time in her
life, the little girl saw an ocean.
She was tremendously impressed by
its magnitude.
"O Mommie!" she exclaimed, excitedly.
"Ocean kuh pang!" "Pang" was her baby talk for
panties.
The adults haven't stopped laughing since.
The moral is,
children should be taught the proper professional terms rather than some
weird terminology of your own devising.
Three Functional Categories
We humans cannot live the clean and happy lives the Creator intended
and made possible, unless we understand His PURPOSES, and the laws
regulating sex functions.
This is true, regardless of age, sex or
marriage status.
It applies to all from the age of puberty.
And there
are many things about sex which parents need to teach children as soon
as little minds begin to become curious about little bodies.
This book
is not intended to be a technical scientific textbook to educate
professionals -- though certainly every doctor, psychiatrist or other
professional dealing with sex ought to know what has been covered in
this book.
It is, however, the purpose of this book to reveal not only
God's PURPOSES, and the right attitude toward sex, but those basic
though somewhat elementary biological facts which ought to be known by
teenagers as well as the marriageable and the married.
Man, utterly
unlike animals, arrives at sexual maturity several years before he
achieves mental, emotional and social maturity.
Boys and girls are
capable of becoming parents years before they are qualified for the
responsibilities of parenthood.
Teenagers need this knowledge for their
own protection.
In this age of pressures toward promiscuity, blinded by
false teachings, adolescents cannot be expected to resist premarital sex
unless their minds are opened to intelligent acceptance of GOD'S
PURPOSES and LAWS.
Also, all married people need this knowledge if their
marriages are to be preserved in happiness.
It is the lack of this
knowledge which has caused 90 percent of all marital unhappiness,
contention, separation and divorce.
None can understand what he needs to
know without an elementary knowledge of the anatomy of sex organs, as
well as some knowledge of sex stimuli and sex functioning.
And so we
approach, here, the necessary knowledge of anatomy and functioning in a
manner quite different from that which has been commonly used.
The
genital system is composed of three functional categories.
These are: 1)
Glands.
These produce the germinal cells and the hormones.
In the male
these glands are called testes, or testicles, and in the female,
ovaries.
2) Ducts.
These tubes transport the germinating cells from
testes and ovaries, and render possible fertilization.
In the male they
are the vasa efferentia, the epididymis, the vas deferens, the
ejaculatory duct and the urethra.
In the female, they are the Fallopian
tubes, or oviducts, through which the ovum is carried from the ovary to
the uterus.
3) Organs of copulation.
Through these the male germinal
cells, called spermatozoa, reach the ovum for fertilization.
These
organs are, in the male, the penis, and in the female, the vagina.
The
fertilized ovum remains in the female uterus or womb, where it is
nourished and developed sufficiently to be born.
The Body like the Church
No book I have examined and researched on sex anatomy and functions
makes any mention of the Great Architect who planned, designed and
produced it.
Sex is viewed coldly merely as something man finds he has
-- not knowing WHY, or anything of the Designer's purposes -- knowing
only what he sees, and, in his self-centered concupiscent human nature,
experiences.
But the ETERNAL, in His INSTRUCTION BOOK for mankind,
compares the marvelous human body to God's CHURCH, which is the
"Body of Christ.
" The various members in God's Church have
various functions, and God provides them with various spiritual gifts
for performance of these functions.
This is found in the chapter devoted
to the "spiritual gifts," the 12th of I Corinthians.
The human
body -- like God's true Church -- is not composed of one member, but
MANY.
It is the same with GOD.
As explained previously, the biblical
INSTRUCTION BOOK reveals God as a divine FAMILY -- only the ONE God, but
composed of more than one divine Person.
So with the Church.
And so,
likewise, with the God-designed human body, made in the likeness of GOD.
Here, then, we see still another manner in which MAN is made in the
likeness of GOD -- one God, more than one Person; one human body, more
than one member.
Also one Church, more than one member.
Notice! "If
the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body .
.
.
And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the
body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye,
where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the
smelling? But now hath GOD set the members every one of them in the
body, as it hath pleased him" (I Cor.
12:15-18).
It was GOD who
designed and set the sex apparatus in the physical human body --
"AS IT HATH PLEASED HIM"! Then let us learn what we need to
know about them, without false modesty or foolish prudery -- but as God
would have us know! Follow this 12th chapter of I Corinthians a little
further.
The stern, harsh prudes who formulated a false so-called
"Christian" ethic about sex said of the genital system,
"We have no need of thee!" God rebukes them -- and they
should, even in those early centuries, have read His rebuke! Here it is
-- beginning verse 21: "And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I
have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of
you.
Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more
feeble [Moffatt: rather delicate -- or dishonorable], are necessary: And
those members of the body, which we think to be less honorable [sex],
upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have
more abundant comeliness.
" When we come to consider the human body
from the MIND OF GOD -- we see it, not as something shameful and evil,
but as something WONDERFUL, to be understood with clean and healthy
minds, in AWE of the handiwork of the Great Designer.
For this is what
God beheld, when He had formed it, and pronounced "VERY GOOD.
"
The Psalmist was inspired to cry out: "I will praise thee, for I am
fearfully and wonderfully made: MARVELOUS ARE THY WORKS!" God has
given each of us a marvelous human body -- to use as He has directed in
His INSTRUCTION BOOK.
The possession of such a body imposes on each
individual a SACRED RESPONSIBILITY! It is something you may use to God's
honor and glory -- and to your own great happiness; OR you may misuse
and abuse it to dishonor the Creator, and bring degradation, shame and
curses on yourself.
The Male Genital System
First, then, we examine the masculine genital organs.
God says,
through Paul: Those physical organs of the body which humans regard as
more uncomely, He has made very necessary, with HONOR.
And He continues:
"Yes, God has tempered the body together, with a special dignity
for the inferior [uncomely] parts, so that there may be no disunion in
the body, but that the various members should have a common concern for
one another" (I Cor.
12:24-25, Moffatt).
And all this is compared
to GOD'S CHURCH -- the Body of Christ! It may seem to many that the most
"uncomely" parts of the male body are those organs we now
explain first -- the germinal glands, called testicles.
That is, until
the truth about them is learned.
And then one should stand in AWE at the
divine MIND and HANDIWORK of the Great God who designed and produced
such a marvelous mechanism! See the matchless mind and hand of the
Creator in these extremely necessary glands! Actually, they are the most
important organs in the male generative apparatus.
The testes are a pair
of oval-shaped glands.
They are enclosed in a cutaneous sack, or bag,
called the scrotum.
It is made up of several layers, and is divided into
two compartments, each containing a testicle.
Each testicle is about the
size of a hickory nut, approximately 1 1/2 inches long, and 1 inch
thick.
The testes, with the scrotum, hang between the thighs, forward,
underneath the base of the penis, by the spermatic cord.
The testes are
located on the outside of the body.
Did you ever wonder WHY? The Creator
had a very good reason! This will be explained.
Many men themselves do
not realize it, but the left testicle hangs a little lower in the
scrotum than the right.
There is an important reason.
Could blind
evolution, without intelligence, have thought this out and made it thus?
There is perhaps no pain a boy or man can suffer that is as excruciating
as a crushing of or injury to the testicles.
Did blind
"nature" know this? Or did an all-intelligent Creator,
concerned for our welfare, design it so that, in case the thighs are
crowded together, one testicle will slip over the other, thus avoiding
any crushing.
No evolution here!
Miniature "Colossal" Laboratories
When we understand what science tells us about these glands, we ought
to be struck with amazement.
Small as they are, still they are
"laboratories" performing a colossal work, going on day and
night! They perform an astonishing dual activity.
They produce both the
germinal or reproductive cells, which impart human life to an otherwise
infertile ovum; and also the hormones which cause the body to be
masculine in shape, the voice to be masculine in tone, and the mind to
be masculine in its thinking! And that's an incredible job to be
performed by two small "factories" weighing less than an ounce
each! Let's take a quick inspection of these "laboratories"
that generate human life.
Each small testicle contains a very large
number of convoluted tubules, sometimes called seminiferous tubes --
infinitely tiny.
There are about 300 of them, intertwined in a tiny but
vast network of coils.
If stretched out straight, the length of these
tubules, in the two testes, would be approximately one mile in length!
And all within "factories" only 1 1/2 inches in length!
Astonishing? I should say! These tiny coils of tubules produce the male
reproductive cells at an astounding rate -- actually millions an hour,
any one of which could impart a human life to an ovum! These male
reproductive cells are called spermatozoa (singular, spermatozoon) --
and are quite generally, in professional circles, called "sperm
cells" for short -- or, sometimes, just sperm.
These sperm cells
are unbelievably infinitesimal -- the smallest cells in either male or
female body.
They are very different from any other cells in the human
body.
Each has a minute egg-shaped head, an intermediate segment and a
tail comparatively long.
They look, under a microscope, like tiny
tadpoles.
These infinitesimal cells cannot be seen with the naked eye,
but are visible and measurable under a high-powered microscope.
Each
sperm is approximately one four-thousandth of an inch in length.
Even
the female egg cell, or ovum, is only about the size of a fine pinpoint
-- just barely visible to the naked eye -- and a sperm cell is not more
than about one-fiftieth as large as an ovum.
(NOTE: To view this drawing, see the file MDSEX132.
TIF in the Images\HWA
directory)
This drawing shows the interior of a testicle.
Arrow points to a
greatly enlarged section of tubule, as if sliced open -- to illustrate
how millions of spermatozoa are produced within a single hour within the
mile length of these infinitesimal tubules.
Inset at top shows sperm
cells, greatly magnified.
Think of it! Every human being starts his existence in so miniature a
size! Spermatozoa of animals are much larger than those of humans.
The
scientific authorities have now discovered that each human spermatozoon
contains twenty-three chromosomes -- and that it is through these that
the characteristics of the father -- and also of grandparents -- are
transmitted, by heredity, to the child.
Of course the mother's
characteristics also are passed on, through the nucleus within the ovum.
The tiny intertwined tubules within each testicle, in which the
spermatozoa are produced, are so narrow that a hair could not pass
through them.
This book is not intended, as mentioned before, to be a
technical or professional scientific work.
But I do feel that certain of
these more technical facts are important, for the reader should come to
a realization of the awesome mind and purpose of the Creator! This vast,
intricate network of intertwined canals, or convoluted tubules, unite
near the top to form a set of larger ones -- the so-called vasa
efferentia, and these in turn unite to form the epididymus.
All this is
encased within the scrotum.
And finally, the tubules forming the
epididymus converge into one seminal duct or tube, called the vas
deferens.
The vas deferens continues up into the body, carrying
spermatozoa to the seminal vesicle -- which will be explained later.
As
there are two testicles, there are also the vasa efferentia, the
epididymus and the vas deferens for each -- terminating into the two
seminal vesicles located beside, or just under, the bladder within the
body.
The Male Hormones
But before we leave the description of these tiny yet colossal
"laboratories" -- the testicles -- there is still another most
important function they perform.
They produce also the male hormones.
These are of vital importance, and deserve a brief description.
Scattered among these seminiferous tubules are microscopically tiny
islands of cells.
In these infinitesimal islands the male hormones are
produced.
These are not carried through the vas deferens, as are the
spermatozoa, but pass directly into the bloodstream, and thus circulate
through the body.
These male hormones cause changes in the shape of the
body.
Thus, from age of puberty, a boy's body develops into the
masculine form -- narrow hips, wide shoulders for masculine strength;
beard on the face, hair on the chest and other parts of the body more
than is common to females; the deeper voice.
And these hormones directly
influence the MIND.
There are certain pronounced differences between
male and female minds, some of which will be explained later -- although
many of these are generally recognized by all.
For example, little girls
are interested in dolls and feminine things, little boys in machines and
masculine things.
Boys and girls are not sex conscious before the age of
puberty in the same manner they become after puberty -- bodily changes
become pronounced after puberty -- yet there are noticeable MIND
differences in young boys and girls.
Tremendous Importance
Let me illustrate further the ENORMOUS IMPORTANCE of these
"uncomely parts" which humans too often regard as "less
honorable," but on which the Great Designer has bestowed "more
abundant honor.
" Certain experiments made in the interests of
"science" should teach us an impressive lesson.
Perhaps, in
the sight of the Eternal, such experiments ought not to be made.
But men
have made them, and the results are both intriguing and enlightening.
As
far back as history records, men have practiced castration.
It is widely
practiced today on animals -- removing testes before male animals reach
sexual maturity.
You probably eat steer beef often, and capon
occasionally -- to name just two examples.
Of course castration destroys
reproductive capacity.
No spermatozoa are produced.
But also the male
hormone production is destroyed, and that is the striking thing revealed
by certain experiments.
Of course, the castration practice in modern
stock raising is not done primarily to destroy breeding capacity.
It is
done to alter the appearance and behavior of the animal.
The
stock-raiser does not need a bull for every cow.
One bull can take care
of the breeding requirements for a number of cows.
But steers make
fatter and more tender steaks, and if the steer is not butchered for
meat, the animal which, uncastrated, would have grown into a wild bull,
will, as a result of castration, become a docile ox, willing to work.
The castration causes changes in bodily form, and in the horns.
Roosters
and pigs are castrated to increase the poundage and therefore the
profits.
In the Bible you read of castrated humans, called eunuchs.
Middle East sultans and other rulers used eunuchs to serve in harems.
The eunuch lost all sexual desire -- the harem women offered no
temptation.
They were once used at the papal court -- said to be
employed as singers because of their high-pitched voices.
Eunuchs become
obese, without beard or normal male hair growth on the body.
However,
even though castration is an age-old practice, much of the true
importance of male testes and female ovaries was unknown until the
experiments of Berthold in 1849.
It had always been known, of course,
that the comb of a castrated cock degenerates.
But Berthold experimented
further.
He removed the testes of cocks and then regrafted these testes
on the cocks' backs.
The combs remained the same as in all uncastrated
roosters.
All bodily appearances remained the same.
But of course all
reproductive capacity was lost! This proved that the testes serve a DUAL
purpose.
Many similar experiments have been made since.
They prove that
the testes and ovaries not only serve to reproduce one's kind, they also
determine the sex characteristics of the individual.
Some astonishing
experiments were made by the scientist of Vienna, Professor Steinach.
First, he castrated both male and female animals of the same species.
They both acquired a neutral appearance -- neither male nor female.
But
this professor went further.
He exchanged ovaries and testes.
Into
castrated males he grafted female ovaries and into the females the
germinal glands removed from the males.
The former males now took on
female characteristics, and the former females acquired those of males.
The former females now behaved as males toward the former males -- and
the males now took on the behavior of females.
Former males even
developed mammary glands, and nursed the young! Of course there is much
more to the hormone story than this.
Other glands in other parts of the
body have their coordinating relation to bodily characteristics -- such
as the pituitary, pineal, thyroid and suprarenal glands.
It is not our
purpose to discuss them here.
But what little has been covered about the
hormones, it is hoped, will be of interest.
Marvelous Temperature Gauge
The question has been asked, WHY are the testes located outside of
the body? The Great Architect had a very good reason -- but men never
learned this reason until quite recent times.
The earliest account of it
I have been able to find dates from 1950.
Scientists, it seems, stumbled
onto this in making tests on animals to learn how long spermatozoa
retain both their motility and their fertility at various temperatures.
Then, in these experiments, the testes of rabbits were kept in a
refrigerator.
The sperm cells remained alive much longer than when kept
at body temperature.
So next, they made tests on live animals to
determine what happens in testes at various temperatures.
They
discovered that the temperature inside the scrotum was several degrees
lower than body heat.
They made an experiment on male mice, in a
hatching oven at 110 degrees.
They found fertility drastically reduced,
and soon nil.
Test now followed test.
They were learning things! So next
they tried heating the testes alone, with bodies at normal temperatures.
This experiment was made on sheep, goats and pigs.
The same thing
happened -- fertility rapidly reduced, until there were no fertile
spermatozoa! Finally a Dutch scientist determined that the temperature
inside the human scrotum is actually six to fifteen degrees lower than
body temperature! It took man thousands of years to learn what the
Creator planned and designed! Finally men learned that these colossal,
yet miniature "laboratories" are so designed that they require
this slightly lower temperature to produce fertile life-imparting cells
for the reproduction of the race! Then they discovered additional proof.
In the fetal stage of development before birth, the testes first develop
inside the male fetus, and then descend into the scrotum some
considerable time prior to birth, through the inguinal canal.
In all
normal cases male babies are born with the testes already in the
scrotum.
But it sometimes occurs that one or both testicles remain in
the abdomen at and after birth.
These infants are born with either a
half-empty or wholly empty scrotum.
Doctors today bring down the testes
with a minor operation.
Yet, when this was not known, there were cases
where the testes remained, after puberty, and after marriage, inside the
body.
Formerly, neither these men -- nor, for that matter medical
science, could understand WHY such men appeared in every other way
normal MEN -- they could marry -- they had normal desire and ability for
coitus -- yet they could not become fathers! Their testes were normal --
they did manufacture spermatozoa.
But not fertile sperms.
They were
sterile! Today it is known that the cause was, simply, that these
marvelous and mighty little "factories" generating human life
do not perform their wonderful operation of producing life-imparting
sperm cells at bodily temperature.
They must be kept at a temperature
several degrees lower! So now scientists have at last learned something
else! The scrotum -- the sack which houses the testicles and
epididymides -- is made up of a kind of skin different from any other in
man or woman! It is a nonconductor of heat! It is made up of folds.
In
cold temperatures, or if the man if bathing or swimming in cold water,
these folds shrink up, and draw the testes up tight against the body --
almost partially into it -- lest the outside temperature become too cold
for these marvelous little "laboratories.
" But, in very warm
weather, they stretch out, until the testes are dropped down a
considerable distance farther from the warmer-than-normal body.
Thus,
this scrotum not only needed to be on the outside of the body -- it also
acts as an AUTOMATIC TEMPERATURE GAUGE, to keep these little
life-germinating "factories" producing at temperatures proper
for their work! If you think "mother nature," blindly, and
without mind, intelligence or knowledge, planned and worked all this
out, you are welcome to your ridiculous opinion! It was not dumb and
stupid "MOTHER nature" -- it was the Supreme FATHER-GOD -- who
instructed CHRIST, who "spoke" and commanded, and the Holy
Spirit was the POWER that brought it into being.
If you think the
evolutionary fable sounds more rational as a means of accounting for
such wonders -- well, of course you are allowed your opinions, however
far from FACT!
The "Authorities" Speculate
These experimenting scientists deduce something further from their
experiments.
Their tests indicate that male sperm cells gradually lose
both vigor or motility, and also fertilizing power, under the normal
bodily temperature once deposited within the female body.
Some
experimenters insist spermatozoa retain power for fertilization only 48
hours, and that ova must be fertilized within 24 hours, in the Fallopian
tube.
Thus, if this were true, there is only a period of a few hours in
any month when human conception is possible.
This "discovery"
led to the "rhythm cycle" theory.
But this so-called method of
planned parenthood has, in fact, produced quite a bumper crop of babies!
However, the doctors and scientists do not agree among themselves! A
European "authority" says: "This period of time is
variously estimated.
Some authorities think it is only from twenty-four
to thirty-six hours.
Others assume eight or even fourteen days.
Taking
into consideration the analogy of various animal species and practical
experience rather than experimental research, I am inclined to believe
in a long continuance of seminal vitality.
" Notice these
expressions in the above quotation -- typical of "scientific"
language, as I have expressed in an earlier chapter: "Variously
estimated"; "Some authorities think .
.
.
"; "Others
assume .
.
.
"; and "I am inclined to believe .
.
.
.
" We are
dealing, here, not with the AUTHORITY of revelation, but with the
speculations, opinions and guesses of "science.
" Personally I
claim no authority, save that of God.
I have seen charts in medical
books generally available only to doctors -- and I have read many
statements of experience, which do indicate that pregnancy is possible
at any time of the month.
And so we have now covered the most important
organs in the male generative apparatus.
Female Generative System
We come next to the equivalent system in the female.
I am departing
altogether from the method followed almost universally in the flood of
books on the subject of sex, in covering essentials of the sex organs.
Instead of grouping the organs as to external and internal -- male, and
then female, it seems more logical, for our purposes here, to describe
them according to functional classification.
The most important organs
in the generative system of the female are the ovaries.
There are
certain similarities between the female ovaries and the male testes --
yet in other ways they are quite dissimilar.
The ovaries are located on
the inside of the body.
They do not, like the male generative
"laboratories," require lower-than-bodily temperature to do
their work.
They are, like the testes, a pair, located within the
pelvis, in the lower abdominal region, one on each side of the upper
portion of the uterus.
Also, like male testes, each ovary is about 1 1/2
inches in length, but they are more almond-shaped.
They are connected to
the uterus by a pair of ducts called Fallopian tubes.
The ovaries
produce the egg cells, called ova (singular, ovum).
When an ovum is
fertilized by a sperm cell, it is the start of a new human life.
In each
ovary, many egg cells (ova), between the age of puberty and menopause,
are in various stages of development.
But ova are produced very much
more slowly than spermatozoa.
A mature ovum is released from the ovaries
about once every four weeks -- alternating every other month, so that
each ovary produces a mature ovum approximately every eight weeks.
(NOTE: To view this drawing, see the file MDSEX142.
TIF in the Images\HWA
directory)
Illustration of ovulation, showing bursting follicle, with ovum being
shot into opening of Fallopian tube, together with uterus.
Upper inset
shows greatly enlarged cut-open section of Fallopian tube, with sperm
cells attacking ovum.
Each ovum is an almost round, or globular cell, about the size of a
pinpoint, just barely discernible by the naked eye -- if your eyes are
really sharp.
Yet, tiny as they are, each ovum is about fifty times
larger than a spermatozoon.
As they are produced inside the ovary, each
ovum is surrounded by, and enclosed in, a sort of very tiny bladder,
called a Graafian follicle.
This follicle is filled with fluid.
As each
ovum matures, enclosed in its follicle, it is developed in the outer
layer of the ovary.
This causes the outer ovarian wall to bulge.
Then
the Graafian follicle bursts, or rather explodes its contents out into
the abdomen.
The ovum is caused to bounce out, like a ball, into the
fringed, or near funnel-shaped end of the Fallopian tube.
This fringed
end of the Fallopian tube, shaped something like a carnation flower,
seems to open like an out-stretched hand, to receive the ovum, which is
virtually shot into it.
It opens only when an ovum is mature and ready
to be released into it.
This discharge of the ovum from the ovary into
the Fallopian tube is called ovulation.
The Female Hormones
At this same instant something else, quite interesting and very
important, happens.
The female sex hormone is called follicular hormone,
because it is formed within this membranous envelope or follicle.
When
the follicle bursts, only the infinitesimal round ovum is shot into the
oviduct (Fallopian tube).
The follicular hormone is then released into
the abdomen, absorbed into the blood-stream and thus carried by the
blood to do its work in various parts of the body.
So the hormone
production in females is unlike that in males.
It is formed in the
female germinal cells -- the ovaries -- but not in tiny islands among
tiny tubules.
Ova are not formed in tubules, as sperm cells are formed
in testes.
Instead of being developed in a system of coiled tubules,
both ovary and hormone are formed near the outer surface of the ovary.
In a sense, this membranous envelope formed around the ovum compares to
the shell covering a hen's egg.
When the follicle bursts and the ovum is
bounced out of the ovary, it would quickly perish if it were not, in a
fraction of a second, shot directly into the oviduct, where an
albuminous substance immediately protects it.
And that, in brief, is the
story of the sexual glands in both men and women.
They are, indeed,
miniature "laboratories," or tiny "factories,"
where, in a sense, human beings are being manufactured -- or, at least
the germinating cells which start every human life! It is, when seen
from the approach, and through the eyeglasses of the revelation of the
Creator, a fascinating and awe-inspiring bit of knowledge.