ON GENERATION. 471 



of the history of generation in the deer employ the words uterus 

 and horns of the uterus promiscuously. 



In the human female, as I have said, the two tubes that arise 

 near the cervix uteri and there perforate its cavity have no 

 analogy to the parts generally called cornua, but, on the con- 

 trary, in the mind of some anatomists, to the vasa spermatica. 

 By others again they are called the spiramenta uteri the 

 breathing tubes of the uterus ; and by others still they are called 

 the vasa deferentia seu reservantia, as if they were of the same 

 nature as the canals so designated in the male ; whilst they in 

 fact correspond to the cornua of the uterus in other animals, as 

 most clearly appears from their situation, connexion, length, 

 perforation, general resemblance, and also office. For as many 

 of the lower animals regularly conceive in the cornua uteri, so 

 do women occasionally carry their conceptions in the cornu, or 

 this tube, as the learned Riolanus 1 has shown from the obser- 

 vations of others, and as we ourselves have found it with our 

 own eyes. 



These cornua terminate in a common cavity which, as stated, 

 forms a kind of porch or vestibule to the uterus, and corresponds 

 in the deer to the neck of the womb in women; in the same 

 way as the tubes in question in the human female correspond 

 to the cornua uteri in the deer. Now this name of cornua has 

 been derived from the resemblance of the parts to the horns of 

 an animal ; and in the same way as the horns of a goat or ram 

 are ample at the base, arched and protuberant in front, and 

 bent-in behind, *so are these horns of the uterus in the hind 

 and doe capacious inferiorly, and taper gradually off superiorly, 

 as they are reflected towards the spine. Further, as the 

 horns of the animal are unequally tuberculated and uneven in 

 front, but smooth behind, so are the horns of the uterus tuber- 

 culated, as it were, and uneven, through the presence of cells, 

 something like those of the colon, inferiorly and anteriorly; 

 but superiorly, and on the aspect towards the spine, they are 

 continuous and smooth, and present themselves secured and 

 bound down by a ligamentous band ; they at the same time 

 gradually decrease in size like horns. Did one take a piece of 

 empty intestine, such as is used for making sausages, and draw- 



1 Anthropologia, lib. ii, cap. 34. 



