Fallopian

[Dave Monroe]

I've a sneaking suspicion that it was Joseph Heller's
Catch-22 (1960) that established that "-ian" (as in
"Yossarian") ending as the marker of the Armenian
surname in the American popular--or, at any rate,
literary--imagination, cf. Fergus Mixolydian, the
Irish Armenian Jew in V., but ...

fal·lo·pi·an tube
f&-'lO-pE-&n-
noun
often capitalized F
Gabriel Fallopius died 1562 Italian anatomist
circa 1706
: either of the pair of tubes conducting the egg from
the ovary to the uterus.

http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary

http://www.mhhe.com/socscience/sex/common/ibank/ibank/0009b.jpg

"Fallopius, Gabriel (1523–1562)

"Latinized name of Gabriele Falloppio

"Italian anatomist who discovered the Fallopian tubes,
which he described as 'trumpets of the uterus', and
named the vagina ..."

http://ebooks.whsmithonline.co.uk/encyclopedia/29/M0001229.htm

>From his Anatomical Observations (1561) ...

"That slender and narrow seminal passage arises from
the horn of the uterus, very white and sinewy. But
after it has passed outward a little way it becomes
gradually broader and curls like the tendrils of a
vine until it comes near the end, when the
tendril-like curls spread out and it terminates in a
very broad ending which appears membranous and fleshy
on account of its reddish color. 

"This ending is much shredded and worn as if it were
the fringe of a worn piece of cloth, and it has a
broad opening which always lies closed by the coming
together of those fringed ends.  However, if they are
opened carefully and spread apart they form, as it
were, the bell-like mouth of a bronze trumpet." 

http://www.medicalpost.com/mdlink/english/members/medpost/data/3423/31B.HTM

Texts downloadable at ...

http://eee.uci.edu/~papyri/bibliography/f.html

And do of course cf. ...

http://www.muenster.de/stadt/kongress1648/img/4_35.jpg

But to continue ...

"Fallopius ... in his Anatomical Observations (1561)
on the human female reproductive tract, chose the term
tuba uterina because the Latin word tuba means
trumpet,
reflecting the similarity of the infundibulum to the
flared bell of a trumpet. More than a century later,
de Graaf, who discovered the function of the ovary and
named the oviduct in his study of the hen, published
his paper On the Human Reproductive Organs (1672). He
used the terms tubae and tubae Fallopii because these
were the established mammalian terms. Tuba uterina is
the international term in the nomenclatures of gross
anatomy since 1895, histology since 1965, and
embryology since 1977. Eponyms like Fallopian were
eliminated from the Nomina Anatomica in 1955. The
English term uterine tube, while an inexact
translation, is standard in medicine, approved by the
Nomencl. Comm. of the Am. College of Theriogenologists
in 1987." 

http://civic.bev.net/aava/abstr95.html#4

And see also ...

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05772a.htm

"She found Mike Fallopian, a couple weeks into raising
a beard ..." (Lot 49, Ch. 6, p. 166)

http://newscenter.cancer.gov/sciencebehind/cioc/renaissance/9.3.jpg

http://gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~atkins/newwebpages/Graphics/fallopius.jpg

And note as well ...

"Gabriele Fallopius, an Italian medical researcher, is
credited as the creator of the concept of the
condom.... Fallopius' original design called for a
linen cloth to fit the shape of a man's penis and be
fitted over him prior to engaging in intercourse. His
design was introduced in the mid-fifteen hundreds but
through time changed and improved."

http://www.depaul.edu/~rtheodos/papers/condom1.html

"In the mid-1500s, Fallopius, a professor of anatomy
at the University of Padua, designed a medicated linen
sheath that fit over the glans, or tip of the penis,
and was secured by the foreskin. It represents the
first clearly documented prophylactic for the male
member. Soon sheaths appeared for circumcised men.
They were a standard eight inches long and tied
securely at the base with a pink ribbon, presumably to
appeal to the female. Fallopius's invention was tested
on over one thousand men, 'with complete success,' as
the doctor himself reported. The euphemism of the day
labeled them 'overcoats.'" 

http://www.englishcompany.net/condoms.html

http://www.kinglove.com/ae/ask009.asp

In the meantime, J. Kerry Grant (A Companion to The
Crying of Lot 49) notes that ...

"Watson regards this name, along with that of Stanley
Koteks, as contributing to the book's theme of
transsexuality through their references to 'the
anatomy and sanitation of strictly female processes'
(60)." (p. 49)

Citing ...

Watson, Robert N.  "Who Bids for Trsitero?
   The Conversion of Pynchon's Oedipa Maas."
   Southern Humanities Review 17 (Winter 1983):
   59-75.

I'm not so sure about any "theme of transsexuality"
here, but I can't stop hearing the ol' "Has anybody
seen Mike Hunt?" gag here ...


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