THE OVARIES. 471 



roimd constricted orifice, ostium ahdominalc, placed at the bottom of a 

 sort of fissure leading from that fringe which is attached to the ovary. 

 It is by this orifice that an ovnm is received at the time of its liberation 

 from the ovary, and is thence conveyed along the tube, which narrows 

 very much towards its uterine extremity, and opens into the womb by 

 a minute orifice, admitting only a fine bristle, and named ostium uieri- 

 nvm. The canal becomes gradually larger towards its abdominal 

 orifice, where it is again somewhat contracted : hence the term isthmus, 

 given by Henle to the uterine half, and ampulta to the outer half of 

 the Fallopian tube. A second smaller fimbriated opening not unfre- 

 quently occurs at a short distance from the main one. 



Beneath the external or peritoneal coat the walls of the tube contain, 

 besides areolar tissue, plain muscular fibres like those of the uterus, 

 arranged in an external longitudinal and an internal circular layer. 

 The mucous membrane lining the tubes is thrown into longitudinal 

 plicre, which are broad and numerous in the wider part of the tube, and 

 in the narrower part are broken up into very numerous arborescent 

 processes : it is continuous, on the one hand, with the lining membrane 

 of the uterus, and at the other end of the tube with the peritoneum ; 

 presenting an example of the direct continuity of a mucous and serous 

 membrane, and making the peritoneal cavity in the female an exception 

 to the ordinary rule of serous cavities, i. e., of being perfectly closed. 

 The epithelium in the interior of the Fallopian tube is, like that of the 

 uterus, columnar and cihated ; the inner surface of the fimbria is also 

 provided with cilia, and Henle has even detected ciliated epithelium on 

 then- outer or serous surface, but it here soon passes into the scaly 

 epithelium of the peritoneal membrane. The mechanism by which the 

 minute ovum, when it escapes from the ovary, is carried into the cavity 

 of the uterus is not yet fully understood. Neither the vascular tur- 

 gescence nor the muscular contractions, which may no doubt accompany 

 the passage, appear to be the immediate agents, and it seems more 

 probably due, in greatest part, if not entirely, to the ciliary movement 

 which proceeds in a direction downwards in the tube from the fimbri- 

 ated extremity. It does not appear that there are glands, as was at one 

 time supposed, in the macous membrane lining the Fallopian tubes. 



THE OVARIES. 



The ovaries (ovaria, testes muliebres), the productive organs corre- 

 sponding more immediately to the bodies of the testicles of the male, 

 are two somewhat flattened oval bodies, which are placed one on each 

 side, with their long diameter nearly horizontally across the pelvis. 

 They lie at the back of the broad ligament of the uterus, and are en- 

 veloped by its posterior membranous layer. The weight of each ovary 

 is from sixty to a hundred grains, and they usually measure about one 

 inch and a half in length, three quarters of an inch in width, and nearly 

 half an inch in thickness ; but their size is variable, both according to 

 the period of life and their state of greater or less functional activity. 

 Each ovary is free on its two sides, also along its posterior border, which 

 has a convex outline ; but it is attached to the broad ligament by its 

 anterior border, which is straighter than the other, and along the line 

 of its attachment it exhibits a deep groove or hitiis by which the vessels 

 and nerves enter. Its inner end is generally narrower than the outer, and 



