clitoris

In 1559 he published a book called De re anatomica in which he described the "seat of woman's delight." He concluded, "since no one has discerned these projections and their workings, if it is permissible to give names to things discovered by me, it should be called the love or sweetness of Venus."

However others made claims to have discovered it. Gabriel Fallopius - Columbus' successor at Padua - disputed the assertion that Columbus discovered claiming credit for himself.

There are also several claims that knowledge of the clitoris was widely known well before either man's 'discovery'. But Colombo's remains the earliest physical documentation of the bud that would one day become a phenomenom leading to the sexual revolution.

The clitoris (pronounced: KLIHT uh rihs) is a sexual organ in the body of female mammals, located near where the labia minora meet anteriorly. The visible knob-like portion is located above the opening of the vagina. Its function is inducing sexual pleasure and orgasms.

It is formed out of corpora cavernosa and embryologically arises from the same tissue that forms the male penis. The clitoris has a 'hood' of tissue that is embryologically comes from same tissue that becomes the foreskin in males. The trigger for forming a clitoris instead of a penis is the action of testosterone (see why do women have a clitoris?) in early in utero.

The following excerpt taken from the wikipedia article on the clitoris:

Medical literature first recognised the existence of the clitoris in the 16th century. This is the subject of some dispute: Renaldo Columbus (also known as Matteo Realdo Colombo) was a lecturer in surgery at the University of Padua, Italy, and in 1559 he published a book called De re anatomica in which he described the "seat of woman's delight." Columbus concluded, "Since no one has discerned these projections and their workings, if it is permissible to give names to things discovered by me, it should be called the love or sweetness of Venus."

Columbus' claim was disputed by his successor at Padua, Gabriel Fallopius (who discovered the fallopian tube), who claimed that he was the first to discover the clitoris. Kasper Bartholin, a 17th century Danish anatomist, dismissed both claims, arguing that the clitoris had been widely known to medical science since the 2nd century.

Extensive studies of the clitoris were conducted by noted researchers Masters and Johnson, by Boston based researcher John Garabedian, and by Dr. Matt Jaeger at the University of Kentucky. Some studies has shown that the clitoris was akin to a penis for women. The shape and the matter is the same.

In the 1970s, the word clitoris was considered offensive in United States broadcasting, yet in recent years has moved off the "taboo" list. The first use of clitoris on American television is believed to have been by Dr. Rich O'Brien, a Harvard colleague of Garabedian's, on the Dr. Ruth Westheimer show.

http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/clitoris

Cliterectomy is a barbaric practice still carried out today in some societies as part of female circumcision.

Dictionary of Sexology Project: Main Index

Cli"to*ris (? ∨ ?), n. [NL., fr. Gr. , fr. to shut up. It is concealed by the labia pudendi.] Anat.

A small organ at the upper part of the vulva, homologous to the penis in the male.

© Webster 1913.