648 SPECIAL HISTOLOGY. 



and smaller, sinuous fossse lined with cylinder-epithelium, and as much 

 as 1 line and more in depth, and differing very essentially from common 

 mucous follicles, although, as the secreting organs of the viscid, crys- 

 talline mucus of the cervix uteri, they may be designated the mucous 

 follicles of the uterus. In this region also occur, in great abundance, 

 closed vesicles, -1-1-2 lines and more in size, filled Avith the same secre- 

 tion, and composed of a layer of connective tissue and short cylinder- 

 cells, the so-termed ovula Nabotlii, which, like the Graafian follicles, 

 might perhaps be regarded as closed glandular vesicles, bursting periodi- 

 cally, but which probably are nothing more than dilated and closed 

 mucous follicles, and in part also pathological new formations ; they 

 are likewise occasionally found in the mucous membrane of the body of 

 the uterus. The inferior third or half of the cervical canal contains 

 verrucose or filiform papillae, 0'l-0"3 of a line long, clothed with ciliated 

 cylinders, containing a single or several vascular loops, with very nu- 

 merous minute nuclei, and also, perhaps, pale oil-drops in their interior. 

 The distribution of the vessels in the unimpregnated uterus, does not 

 present much of a special nature. The larger arterial branches run in 

 the muscular substance, and ramify thence on both sides in the muscular 

 and mucous coats. The latter, as everywhere, has larger vessels in the 

 deeper, and finer in the superficial portion, and these, after they have 

 surrounded the glands with smaller capillaries, form an extremely rich 

 and delicate plexus of larger vessels (0-OOG-O-Ol of a line) on the sur- 

 face, from which arise the wide, thin-walled veins, unfurnished with 

 valves, which follow the course of the arteries towards the exterior. 

 The lymphatics, probably commencing in the mucous membrane, are 

 remarkably numerous, form coarser or finer networks under the peri- 

 toneal investment and proceed, in numerous, considerable trunks, ac- 

 companying the blood-vessels, in part to the pelvic glands, in part, with 

 the vasa spermatica, to the lumbar plexus. The nerves of the uterus, 

 containing numerous fine, and some thick nerve-fibres coming from the 

 hypogastric and pudendal plexuses, and united in a plexiform manner, 

 reach the uterus through the broad ligaments, and ramify, folloAving 

 principally the course of the vessels in the muscular substance, from 

 the fundus to the cervix, in which latter situation they are the most 

 abundant. They are white and, in the uterus, are not furnished with 

 any ganglia ; their condition in the mucous membrane, and their termi- 

 nations elsewhere, are unknown. 



Of the ligaments of the uterus, the ligg. lata, anteriora, and p)oste- 

 riora, are duplicatures of the peritoneum, which contain, together with 

 the vessels and nerves passing to and from the uterus, a considerable 

 number of smooth muscular fibres continued into them from the uterus. 

 The same tissue also arising from the uterus, occurs more sparingly in 

 the ligg. ovarii, and in very considerable number in the ligg. rotunda^ 



