614 



UTERUS AND ITS APPENDAGES. 



Fig. 416. 



Genitn-urinary organs of a fatal sheep. (After J. 

 M tiller.) 



a, kidneys ; b, ureters ; c, ovaries ; d, Wolffian 

 bodies; e, uterine cornua and Fallopian tubes; 

 f, infundibular end of the tubes ; g, middle portion 

 of the uterus. 



In older female embryos the Fallopian tubes, 

 now more completely formed, are thicker and 

 exhibit a somewhat undulating outline. The 



Fig. 417. 



Internal generative organs of a foetal deer. (After 

 J. Muller.) 



a, middle portion of the uterus ; b, cornua ; c, Fal- 

 lopian tubes or oviduct ; d, ovaries ; e, remains of 

 the Wolffian bodies. 



Wolffian bodies, much reduced in size, may 

 be found lying in a duplicature of peritoneum, 

 between the ovaries and the oviducts. The 

 inferior portion of the latter becomes wi- 

 dened, and the division between the tubes 



and the horns, or cornua, of the uterus is 

 established ; although the tube still remains 

 relatively very broad, even up to its abdomi- 

 nal end. 



In the human subject the opportunities for 

 observation upon very early embryos being of 

 not very frequent occurrence, the foregoing 

 changes have not been so accurately traced 

 in the first stages as in the embryos of 

 birds and mammals ; but all the examina- 

 tions which have yet been made lead to 

 the conclusion that the Fallopian tube has 

 its origin in a duct similar to that already 

 described. This, with the rest of the in- 

 ternal organs, is sufficiently developed by the 

 third month of utero-gestation to leave no 

 longer any doubt as to the sex. By this 

 period the oviducts have nearly acquired that 

 horizontal position which, from the fourth 

 month onwards, becomes a more marked cha- 

 racteristic. In embryos of the fourth month 

 the tubes run parallel with the now horizon- 

 tally placed ovaries, whose elongated form 

 corresponds with the tube in the greater por- 

 tion of its length. By the end of this month 

 the abdominal end of the tube is seen to be 

 wide open, and traces of the fimbriae are dis- 

 coverable in its already fringed margin. The 

 lower ends of the tubes are still not so com- 

 pletely united but that an indentation is per- 

 ceptible at their point of junction, giving 

 evidence of the still bi-corned condition of the 

 uterus. From this period onwards the proper 

 structure of the tube wall appears to grow with 

 greater rapidity than the fold of peritoneum 

 by which it is invested ; so that in advanced 

 embryos, and in the fretus at term, the ovi- 

 duct is usually found of a tortuous or 

 serpentine form, its windings being easily dis- 

 tinguishable through the peritoneal sheath. 

 The tube now much exceeds the ovary in 

 length, and its infundibular end is beautifully 

 margined with delicate fimbriae (fig. 418.). 



Fig. 418. 



Uterus and appendages of human foetus at term. (After Richard.) 



a, pavilion of the left side ; a, the same of the right side (below it, in this specimen, is the remark- 

 able variety of two separate accessory pavilions b and c) ; d, Fallopian tube, exhibiting numerous 

 sinuosities in its outer half; /, round ligament ; e, ovary. 



ABNORMAL ANATOMY OF THE FALLOPIAN 

 TUBE. 



Defect and Imperfect Development. Ab- 



sence of the Fallopian tube is of infrequent B. I. 



occurrence, and is usually observed in cases 

 where there is a coincident deficiency of the 

 uterus or ovary.* But when the two latter 



Meckel, Handbuch der Patholog. Anatomic, 



