2046 



HUMAN ANATOMY. 



THE FEMALE PERINEUM. 



The structures closing the pelvic outlet in the female correspond with those 

 found in the male, modified, however, by the presence of the urogenital cleft and the 

 small size of the clitoris. 



Owing to the greater divergence of the bony boundaries of the subpubic angle 

 and the increased distance between the ischial tuberosities, the width of the lozenge- 

 shaped perineal space (when the limbs are separated j is somewhat greater in the 

 female. As in the male (page 19 16), the perineal region is divisible into a posterior 

 rectal and an anterior urogenital triangle by an imaginary transverse line drawn 

 between the anterior borders of the ischial tuberosities. Distinction must be made 

 between the term "perineum," as above used, to indicate the entire region, and 

 when applied in a restricted sense to the bridge separating the anal and vulvar orifices. 

 Reference to sagittal sections (Fig. 1700) shows that this superficial bridge forms the 



Fig. T72q 



/"\ 



'^ 



I 



Cut edge of super- 

 ficial layer of su- 

 perficial fascia 



Prepuce of clitoris 

 Glans clitoridis 



Labia niinora< 

 Labia majora 



Superficial fascia 



Superficial layer 

 of superficial 

 fascia reflected 



-Colles's fascia 



Vulvar fissure 



Posterior 

 commissure 



Cut edge of skin 

 Anus 



Superficial dissection of female perineum; on right side skin only has been removed; 

 on left, superficial layer of superficial fascia has been reflected. 



lower part of a triangular fibro-muscular mass, the perineal body, that divides the 

 vagina from the rectum and anal canal and contains the perineal centre with the con- 

 verging fibres of the external sphincter, transverse perineal, and bulbo-cavernosus 

 (sphincter vagince) muscles. 



Apart from its somewhat greater breadth and more generous layer of fat, the 

 rectal triangle presents no special features and contains the same structures as in the 

 male. The superficial fascia, prolonged from the thighs and buttocks and usually 

 laden with fat, closes in the ischio-rectal fossae and is directly continuous with the 

 fatty areolar tissue filling these spaces. The internal pudic vessels and pudic nerve 

 occupy the fascial (Alcock's) canal on the outer wall of the ischio-rectal fossa and 

 give off the inferior hemorrhoidal branches distributed to the skin and muscles sur- 

 rounding the anal canal. 



Over the urogenital triangle the superficial fascia is divisible into two distinct 

 layers, a superficial and a deep. The former, loaded with fat, is continuous above 

 and at the sides with the corresponding stratum on the abdomen and the thighs, and 

 behind with the superficial fascia covering the rectal triangle. The deep layer, or 

 Colles's fascia, is devoid of fat ajid membranous in character. Behind, where it turns 



