siXT. 205.] OF THE UTERUS. 459 



in diameter. In their normal condition, these glands contain no 

 morphological particles ; but their epithelium is very easily de- 

 tached, and may appear as a whitish-gray secretion filling them. 

 These glands have been observed by H. J fuller in persons seventy 

 to eighty years of age, as well as in a child of two years old; in 

 diseases, however, thev are very readily destroyed. 



In the cervix, the mucous membrane is whiter, firmer and 

 thicker than in the body ; it averages 1" to i-^'" in thickness, and 

 is especially thick on the anterior and posterior wall : here the 

 well-known plicce palmata are found, and lying between them we 

 meet with sinuous depressions of various sizes, a line and more in 

 depth, and lined by cylindrical epithelium. These pits or depres- 

 sions differ, indeed, very essentially from the ordinary mucous 

 glands, yet, as the organs which secrete the viscid clear mucus of 

 the cervix uteri, they may be distinguished by the name of the 

 mucous follicles of the uterus. In this region also, there are fre- 

 quently found short vesicles, -J"', i" to 2" and more in diameter, 

 filled with a similar mucous secretion, and composed of a layer 

 of connective tissue, with short cylindrical cells. These are the 

 so-called ovuli. Naboihi, which are nothing but enlarged mucous 

 follicles, whose apertures are closed, whilst others of them are 

 pathological new formations ; they are occasionally found also in 

 the mucous membrane of the body of the uterus. The lower third 

 or the lower half of the cervix contains wart- shaped filiform papillae, 

 o*i"' to 0-3'" in length, covered with ciliated cylindrical epithelium; 

 together with one or more vascular loops in their interior, numer- 

 ous small nuclei and pale fat-globules are seen in them. 



The distribution of the vessels in the non-pregnant uterus, does 

 not present much that is peculiar. The larger arterial branches 

 run in the muscular substance, and are distributed thence in the 

 various muscular layers, and the mucous membrane of both sides 

 of the organs. The vessels of the mucous membrane are, as usual, 

 larger in the deep portions, and finer in the more superficial. The 

 fine arterial twigs of the latter, after they have surrounded the 

 glands with fine capillaries, form an extremely rich and beautiful 

 network of coarser capillaries (o , oo6" / to o'oi'") on the surface, 

 from which the veins arise ; these are wide, thin-walled, and un- 

 provided with valves, and resemble the arteries in their passage 

 outwards. The lymphatics, which probably commence in the mu- 

 cous membrane, are extremely numerous, form coarser and finer 

 networks beneath the peritoneal covering, and lead partly to the 

 pelvic glands by means of numerous large trunks accompanying 

 the blood-vessels, partly to the lumbar plexus in company with 



