604 



UTERUS AND ITS APPENDAGES. 



axis of the tube. This, indeed, appears to be 

 entirely so at the surface; but deeper towards 

 the central canal, numerous flat bundles cross- 

 ing the former at right angles are encoun- 

 tered, and these become more abundant still 

 nearer to the mucous membrane, although, so 

 far as I have been able to trace them, they do 

 not constitute so distinct and separate a layer 

 as the outer longitudinal stratum. 



The general condition of the lining mem- 

 brane of the tube, and its peculiar arrange- 

 ment, having been already described, it is 

 only needful here to explain the composition 

 and texture of this coat. This membrane, 

 although commonly regarded as a mucous 

 membrane, contains neither discoverable 

 glands nor villi. It is composed of a very 

 delicate pink or white soft layer, consisting 

 of undeveloped connective tissue, mixed with 

 numerous fusiform formative cells. 



This thin layer is united to the fibrous coat 

 by a small quantity of submucous tissue, 

 which is also found lying between the 

 folds of membrane forming the plicae, or 

 ridges, and serving to connect together the 

 two layers of which they are composed. 



Covering this coat upon its inner surface 

 is a thin layer of long cylindrical epithelial 

 cells of a form peculiar to the Fallopian tube, 

 of which Henle has given a minute account.* 

 These, which are conical or filiform, are fur- 

 nished witli an oval flattened nucleus, and 

 have at their broad, unattached end a dis- 

 tinct row of cilia. These cells may be traced 

 through the entire length of the tube, from 

 the uterus to the free border of the fimbria?, 

 where they gradually diminish in size, and, at 

 the point of junction with the peritoneum, 

 acquire the flattened form of the cells of 

 pavement epithelium. 



Under ordinary circumstances, and when 

 the organs are healthy, the canal of the Fal- 

 lopian tube contains only a small quantity of 

 slightly viscid mucus. But when death has 

 taken place during a menstrual period, the 

 fluid is found to be replaced by blood which 

 is usually of a dark colour, and uncoagulated. 

 This fluid presents, under the microscope, 

 the characters of ordinary blood, with which 

 numerous epithelial scales, derived from the 

 walls of the containing tube, are intermixed. 

 Blood iiessels and nerves. M. Richard is, 

 so far as I am aware, the only author who 

 has been at the pains to examine and de- 

 scribe with anything like minuteness the pre- 

 cise arrangement and distribution of the 

 blood-vessels supplying the Fallopian tube. 

 The following is his account, the general 

 accuracy of which I have verified by frequent 

 injections of these vessels. 



" There exists always a special artery for 

 the tube. Springing from one of the nume- 

 rous branches of the uterine artery, near the 

 angle of the uterus, this vessel takes a direc- 

 tion from within outwards, from the com- 

 mencement of the oviduct, as far as the 

 neighbourhood of the pavilion, describing, 



* Eneyclop. Anat. Gen. t. i. 



like the tube itself, a curve, the concavity 

 of which looks towards the side of the ovary. 

 The artery, which is lodged in the substance 

 of the mesentery of the tube, takes a slightly 

 sinuous course, parallel with the oviduct, and 

 at the distance of one or two finger breadths 

 from it. Situated in the middle of the fila- 

 mentous cellular tissue, which exists between 

 the two layers of peritoneum, it passes con- 

 stantly behind the organ of Rosenmiiller ; so 

 constantly, that keeping this relation in mind, 

 one could immediately, if the neighbouring 

 organs were removed, distinguish the anterior 

 from the posterior face of the lesser wing of 

 the broad ligament. The artery is accom- 

 panied by the two veins of the tube, and sur- 

 rounded by very delicate nervous filaments. 



" The branches furnished by this artery 

 are lateral as well as terminal. The lateral 

 branches are generally three in number. The 

 first enters the inner third of the body of the 

 tube, at a distance of three or four centi- 

 metres from the uterus ; the second supplies 

 the middle, and the third the outermost ex- 

 tremity of the oviduct. These three branches 

 before arriving at the tube bifurcate, the twigs 

 resulting from which bifurcations are directed 

 the one to the right and the other to the left 

 to inosculate with each other. From this 

 results a series of arches furnishing branches 

 to every portion of the body of the tube. 

 The innermost bifurcating branch anastomoses 

 with a branch derived from the proper artery 

 of the uterus, so that a well-marked analogy 

 between the distribution of the tubal artery 

 and that of the mesentery is here observable. 

 The terminal division is distributed to the 

 pavilion. It separates into a greater or less 

 number of tortuous branches, each of which 

 goes to supply a fringe of the pavilion ; the 

 tubo-ovarian fringes also receive each a twig 

 of the tubal artery. Sometimes, however, a 

 small branch of the utero-ovarian artery, from 

 which it is detached opposite to the external 

 extremity of the ovary, establishes one of the 

 anastomoses between the uterine and the 

 utero-ovarian vessel. From the concavity 

 of the tubal artery very small branches pro- 

 ceed to the organ of Rosenmiiller, and to the 

 neighbouring cellular tissue." 



But no adequate notion can be formed of 

 the extreme richness of supply of vessels to 

 this and the neighbouring organs until, after 

 a successful minute injection, the parts have 

 been dried and preserved in b;ilsam. Nume- 

 rous vessels which the opacity of the parts 

 had previously concealed are then brought 

 into view. They are seen running parallel 

 with the surface of the tube, and mostly con- 

 verging towards the fimbria?, upon and in 

 the substance of which they lie as thickly as 

 the pile of velvet, previously to their dis- 

 persion into their final capillary terminations. 

 It was probably this exuberance of vascular 

 supply that led some former observers to 

 imagine that the tube possessed an erectile 

 tissue, a structure of which the most minute 

 injections do not suffice to exhibit a trace. 

 The veins, which follow the same course 



