[Dimples. On Rudolph Bergh's studies of the prostitute women's genital anatomy].

Abstract

From 1874 to 1906 regular examinations for venereal diseases were mandatory for prostitutes in Copenhagen. The leading physician Rudolph Bergh saw the opportunity to obtain detailed knowledge of the genital anatomy through his studies of almost 3.000 prostitute women: He accounted for details as the size of the clitoris, the amount and curliness of the pubic hair, hymeneal remains etc. He related his findings to classical artworks and literature. But he gave no explicit reason for his studies apart from the unique opportunity to study live anatomy. Neither did he conclude on or interpret his findings. Though in late life he supplemented his studies on the genital sphere with an account of the occurrence of some small depressions in the female sacral region; to obstetricians these depressions are known as the lateral demarcations of the rhombus of Michaelis. These depressions were by the classical writer Alciphron called gelasini- dimples; they were seen as characteristics of the hetaera. Bergh found these depressions absent only on a small percentage of the prostitutes he had studied. As he may have, as his contemporary Cesare Lombroso did for criminals, searched for physical characteristics or deviations, these dimples may to Bergh have represented positive signs of the lascivious body.