THE FEMALE URETHRA. 459 



with blood-vessels, and in certain situations there are masses composed 

 of venous plexuses, or erectile tissue, corresponding to those found in 

 the male. Besides the corpora cavernosa and glans clitoridis, already 

 referred to, there are two large leech-shaped masses, the hidbi vesfihuU, 

 about an inch long, consisting of a network of veins, enclosed in a 

 fibrous membrane, and lying one on each side of the vestibule, a little 

 behind the nymphfe. They are rather pointed at their upper extremi- 

 ties, and rounded below : they are suspended, as it were, to the crura 

 of the clitoris and the rami of the pubes, covered internally by the 

 mucous membrane, and embraced on the outer side by the fibres of the 

 constrictor vaginre muscle. They are together equivalent to the bulb 

 of the urethra in the male, which, it will be remembered, presents traces 

 of a median division. In front of the bipartite bulb of the vestibule is 

 a smaller plexus on each side, the vessels of which are directly con- 

 tinuous with those of the bulbus vestibuli behind, and of the glans 

 clitoridis in front. This is the 77^r5 intermedia of Kobelt, and is regarded 

 by him as corresponding with the part of the male corpus spongiosum 

 urethra3 which is in front of the bulb : it receives large veins coming 

 direct from the nymphs. 



Blood-Vessels. — The outennost parts of the vulva are supplied by the superficial 

 pudendal arteries ; the deeper parts aud all the erectile tissues receive branches 

 from the internal pudic ai-teries, as in the male. The veins also in a great 

 measure con-esijond ; there is a vena dorsalis clitoridis, receiving branches from 

 the glans and other parts as in the male ; the veins of the bulbus vestibuli pass 

 backwards into the vaginal i^lexuses, and are connected also "n-ith the obturator 

 veins : above they communicate with the veins of the pars intermedia, those of 

 the coi-pora cavernosa and the glans of the clitoi-is, and also with the vena 

 dorsalis. The lymphatics accompany the blood-vessels. 



Nerves. — Besides sympathetic branches, which descend along the arteries, 

 especially for the erectile tissues, there are other nerves proceeding from the 

 lumbar and sacral plexuses ; those from the former being branches of the genito- 

 crural, and those fi'om the latter of the inferior pudendal and internal pudic 

 nerves, which last sends comparatively large branches to the clitoris. The mode 

 of termination is not known with certainty ; tactile corpuscles have been seen 

 ia the human clitoris, and Pacinian bodies in that of some animals. 



THE FEMALE URETHBA. 



l^hQ female tirefhra is short as compared with that of the male sex. 

 It is about an inch and a half in length, and is wide and capable 

 of great distension ; its ordinary diameter is about three or four 

 lines, but it enlarges towards its vesical orifice. The direction of this 

 canal is mainly downwards with a slight curvature forwards. It lies 

 embedded in the anterior wall of the vagina, from which it can only 

 be separated by dissection. 



The external orifice, or meatus urinarius, opens in the vulva, nearly 

 an inch below and behind the clitoris, between the nymphre, and imme- 

 diately above the entrance to the vagina. From its orifice, which is its 

 narrowest part, the canal passes upwards and backwards between the 

 crura of the clitoris and behind the pubes, gradually enlarging into a 

 funnel-shaped opening as it approaches and joins the neck of the 

 bladder. There is also a dilatation in the back of the canal, just within 

 the meatus. 



