UTERUS 



361 



(which is i mm. thick) , and invading to a slight extent the muscular tissue 

 beneath. They have been carefully modelled by Hedblom, whose studies 

 are not yet published; he finds that occasionally they anastomose with one 

 another, and that in their deeper portion they have long horizontal 

 branches, at right angles with the main tube. Sometimes a small group 

 of glands opens into a single depression of the surface epithelium (Fig. 365). 

 In older persons the glands degenerate, losing their connections with the 

 surface and becoming cystic. Each gland is surrounded by a delicate 

 basement membrane, and between them there is an abundant tunica 



/*&-, Epithelium. 



Gland. 



>._ Mucosa. 



FIG. 365. Mucous MEMBRANE OF THE RESTING UTERUS OF A YOUNG WOMAN. 

 (After B6hm and von Davidoff.) 



X 35 



propria, containing many blood vessels. These form capillary networks 

 around the glands and especially beneath the free surface. The propria 

 contains also many lymphocytes, and its lymphatic vessels form a wide- 

 meshed plexus with blind extensions. These structures are supported by 

 a reticular tissue framework containing many nuclei. 



The upper and larger part of the cervix of the uterus is likewise lined 

 with simple columnar ciliated epithelium, but its cells are taller than those 

 of the corpus (60 n as compared with 20 /*) Mucous cells occur, especially 

 in the outpocketings of epithelial pits which constitute the branched 

 cervical glands. They discharge a secretion which occludes the canal of 

 the cervix during pregnancy. Often they produce macroscopic retention 

 cysts, named "ovules of Naboth," after the Leipzig anatomist who first 



