460 CHANGES IN THE UTERUS DURING [sect. 206. 



the spermatic vein. The nerves of the uterus, which contain many 

 fine nerve-tubes, and a few isolated thick ones, come from the 

 plexus hypogastrici and pudendi, and pass to the uterus from the 

 broad ligament, in which they form a plexus ; they generally 

 follow the course of the vessels, and ramify in the muscular sub- 

 stance from the fundus to the cervix, at which latter place they 

 are most numerous. They are white, and possess no ganglia in the 

 substance of the uterus; their arrangement and termination in 

 the mucous membrane are unknown. 



Of the ligaments of the uterus, the ligamenta lata, anterior a and 

 posteriora, are duplicatures of the peritoneum, which, besides the 

 afferent and efferent vessels and nerves, contain a considerable 

 number of smooth muscular fibres, continuous with those of the 

 uterus. The same tissue, likewise coming from the uterus, is 

 found sparingly in the ligamenta ovarii, and in very considerable 

 quantity in the round ligaments, where it forms longitudinal 

 bundles surrounded by connective tissue. At the internal in- 

 guinal ring, these fibres are joined by numerous others of the 

 transversely striated kind, which often extend along the round 

 ligament nearly to the uterus. 



The Fallopian tube has occasionally two or eveu three ostia abdominal ia. 

 G. Richard, who first pointed out these anomalies (Anat. des Trompes de 

 V Uterus, These, Paris, 1 851) has met with them five times in thirty cases 

 examined by him, and he has also seen blind accessory ostia furnished with 

 fimbriae. Similar cases have recently been described by W. Mcrhel {Beit. z. 

 ■path. Entw.d. Genit. Erl., 1856, Diss). 



§ 206. Changes of the Uterus at the Period of Menstruation and 

 Pregnancy. — During the period of the menses, the whole uterus 

 enlarges and becomes looser in texture. This appears to result, 

 however, rather from the dilatation of the vessels, and the great in- 

 filtration of the entire organ with blood-plasma, than from any other 

 alteration in the elements of the muscular substance : at any rate, 

 I have witnessed no other change in them, except that they were 

 easier of demonstration. On the other hand, the mucous mem- 

 brane, in many cases, really does increase; it becomes softer and 

 thickened to 1" , 2'" to 3'", and in its projecting folds even up to 

 5'" or 6"' : it presents also at this time, beautiful easily separable 

 tubular glands, 1"' to 3'" in length and 0-036'" to o'o^" in breadth, 

 and in the tissue of the mucous membrane are found numerous 

 young cells, round and fusiform in shape. The blood-vessels of 

 the mucous membrane, from which the menstrual fluid is chiefly 

 derived, are now extremely numerous, and are enlarged over the 

 entire circumference of the uterus, especially in the fundus and 



