THE FEMALE REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS 541 



surface is cutaneous and is supplied with sebaceous and sudoriparous 

 glands and with numerous hair follicles. The subepithelial areolar 

 tissue is very dense and its deeper portion contains much fat. 



The clitoris consists of a mass of erectile tissue, homologous with 

 the corpora cavernosa and glans penis of the male; it is covered by a 

 fold of the mucosa. It is well supplied with nerves, which terminate 

 in tactile corpuscles, end bulbs, and genital corpuscles. In this vicinity 

 also, as well as in the region of the labia, Pacinian corpuscles are occa- 

 sionally found. 



The hymen is formed by a reduplication of the vcstibular mucosa. 

 Its inner surface is similar to that of the labia minora and vagina; its 

 outer is like that of the cutaneous surface, except that it, contains no 

 hair follicles. 



The glandulse vestibulares minores are a group of small mucus- 

 secreting glands, similar in structure to the urethral glands of Littre in 

 the male, which occur in the vestibular mucosa in the vicinity of the 

 meatus urethra?. 



The glandulae vestibulares majores (glands of Bartholin) form 

 a paired tubulo-alveolar mucus-secreting gland which opens by a narrow 

 duct into the groove between the hymen and labium minus. The tubular 

 alveoli are lined by columnar mucus-secreting cells ; the diicts are clothed 

 with columnar epithelium, which, as they approach their termination, 

 becomes double-rowed, and finally changes to a stratified squamous epi- 

 thelium similar to that of the surface upon which they open. These 

 ducts frequently present saccular dilatations. 



THE MAMMARY GLANDS 



From a strictly histogenic standpoint the mammary glands should be 

 considered as appendages of the skin, and as such should more properly 

 have been considered in the chapter devoted to that subject. Yet these 

 glands are so closely related to the reproductive functions, attaining 

 their full development only in the lactatiug female, that it seems equally 

 proper to consider them at this time as accessory reproductive organs. 



The mammary glands may be regarded as modified sweat glands. 

 Though producing a fatty secretion they show no resemblance to seba- 

 ceous glands. The mammas undergo the same slight hut progressive de- 

 velopment in both sexes until the time of puberty when they suffer 

 regressive changes in the male, persisting thereafter only in rudimentary 

 condition. In the female they continue to grow, but become functionally 



