ON GENERATION. 199 



and of structure. In the fowl that is with egg, or that has lately 

 laid, it is very different from what it is in the pullet, the uterus 

 of which is fleshy and round, like an empty purse, and its 

 cavity so insignificant that it would scarcely contain a bean; 

 smooth externally, it is wrinkled and occupied by a few longi- 

 tudinal plicse internally : at first sight you might very well 

 mistake it either for a large urinary bladder or for a second 

 smaller stomach. In the gravid state, however, and in the fowl 

 arrived at maturity (a fact which is indicated by the redder 

 colour of the comb), the uterus is of much larger dimensions 

 and far more fleshy; its plicse are also larger and thicker, it in 

 general approaches the size which we should judge necessary to 

 receive an egg; it extends far upwards in the direction of the 

 spinal column, and consists of numerous divisions or cells, 

 formed by replications of the extended uterus, similar to those 

 of the colon in quadrupeds and man. The inferior portion of 

 the uterus, as the largest and thickest, and most fleshy of all, 

 is strengthened by many plicse of large size. Its configuration 

 internally is oval, as if it were the mould of the egg. The 

 ascending or produced portion of the uterus I designate the 

 processus uteri: this part Fabricius calls the "uterus secundus," 

 and says that it consists of three spiral turns or flexures ; 

 Ulyssus Aldrovandus, again, names it the " stomachum uteri." 

 I must admit that in this part there are usually three turns to 

 be observed ; they are not, however, by any means so regular 

 but that, as in the case of the cells of the colon, nature some- 

 times departs from her usual procedure here. 



The uterus as it ascends higher, so does it become ever the 

 thinner and more delicate, containing fewer and smaller plicse, 

 until at length going off into a mere membrane, and that of 

 the most flimsy description, it constitutes the infundibulum ; 

 which, reaching as high as the waist or cincture of the body, 

 embraces the entire ovary. 



On this account, therefore, Fabricius describes the uterus as 

 consisting of three portions; viz., the commencement, the 

 middle, and the end. " The commencement," says he, " de- 

 generating into a thin and most delicate membrane, forms an 

 ample orifice, and bears a resemblance to an open-mouthed 

 tube or funnel. The next portion (which I call the processus 

 uteri), consisting of three transverse spiral turns, serves for the 



