UTERUS (DEVELOPMENT). 



061 



form. He rather conceives that a reduction 

 so takes place, that either the contents of the 

 nerve fibre are partly or entirely removed by 

 resorption, so that there remains, according 

 to circumstances, a partly or entirely empty 

 sheath ; or that the contents of the fibre are 

 transformed in the same manner that Giinther 

 and Schon (Henle, Allgemeine Anat. p. 771.) 

 observed in divided nerves ; viz. that the 

 contents of the tubules become coagulated, as 

 after death, and are then subject to resorption: 

 the fibre appearing then to be perishing, and 

 ribbon-like, and the contents to be disappear- 

 ing. Regarding the human uterus, he thinks 

 it in the highest degree probable, that the 

 nerve fibre is included in the energetic resorp- 

 tion process that affects the puerperal uterus 

 generally ; that a reduction of the fibre fol- 

 lows ; and that, in the next pregnancy, it 

 again becomes developed part passu with the 

 development of the other tissues. 

 /. The uterus after the menstrual epoch, and 



in old age. 



Whether the uterus has been 

 employed, in its ultimate office, in the pro- 

 cess of reproduction, viz. that of gestation, or 

 whether it has proceeded only so far towards 

 this as to have been limited to the repetition, 

 in unvarying succession, of that preparatory 

 stage which is expressed by the minor func- 

 tion of menstruation, in either case the period 

 equally arrives at which the activity of the 

 organ passes away. Ova are no longer dis- 

 charged from the ovaries. These cease to be 

 creative or developing organs ; and with this 

 cessation of the proper function of the ovary, 

 there comes also a corresponding diminution, 

 and finally a termination of the correlative 

 offices of the uterus. 



It is now interesting to observe how the 

 uterus gradually resumes some of the pecu- 

 liar features which it exhibited at an earlier 

 period of life. It may be said to fall back 

 again into its infantine condition. For with 

 the shrivelling of the ovaries, and their reduc- 



Fig. 456. 



The uterus in old age ; showing a return to the infantine proportions between the body and cervix: 



o, the shrivelled ovaries. 

 This figure exhibits the parts of half the natural size. (Ad Nat.) 



tion to a size as small sometimes as that of 

 a child of two orthree years, (Jig. 456.) the ute- 

 rus also gradually shrinks, not in all its parts, 

 but principally in the body, or that portion 

 which is chiefly employed in the processes of 

 menstruation and gestation. This part be- 

 comes atrophied more than the rest ; its 

 walls become thinner, partly from diminished 

 circulation in them, and partly from atrophy 

 of the component tissues, which appear pale 

 and nearly bloodless. Thus it happens that, 

 in advanced life, the walls of the uterine body, 

 no longer possessing that fulness which at an 

 earlier period caused them to encroach upon 

 the cavity, and to exhibit that incurvation of the 

 sides and fundus which has been described as 

 characteristic of the mature organ, again re- 

 turn to the straight and more attenuated con- 

 dition which they had in early life. We may 

 often observe, therefore, in the uterus of aged 

 persons, a nearer approach to the form of 

 the equilateral triangle, caused by the short- 

 ening of the body and the straightening of its 

 walls, than is seen in the uterine cavity of mid- 

 life ; and it is this return to the form of the 



fetal cavity, together with the now prepon- 

 derating size of the cervix, which remains 



Fig. 457. 



Thinning of the uterine walls in old age, and return to 

 the triangular form of the cavity characteristic of 

 the infantine ( fit/. 442.) and undeveloped uterus 

 (fig. 465). (Ad Nat. Half the natural size.) 



nearly unchanged, that gives to the aged ute- 

 rus its greatest similitude to that of infancy 

 or early vouth. 



u u 3 



