MORPHOLOGY OF THE HUMAN UEINOGENITAL TRACT. 3-43 



(a) The relations of the normal hyynen. — If a normally- 

 developed virgo intacta be examined carefully while under 

 chloroform and in the lithotomy posture, as one has often 

 an opportunity of doing in operative cases — e.g., in dilatation 

 for dysmenorrhoea — and if care be taken not to disturb the 

 parts unduly, it can be easily noted that the so-called hymeneal 

 entrance is a vertical slit, and that the edges of the slit are in 

 contact (Cullingworth), This can Ije well seen in the sections 

 of the four-months' foetus, where we can observe the vertical slit 

 in tlie centre of the epithelial proliferation of the hymen 

 (fig. 22). 



How this arises is easily understood when we consider what 

 has been already stated as to the development of the hymen. 

 The vertical sht is due to the coalescence and central breaking 

 down of the laterally placed Wolffian bulbs, and the so-called 

 crescentic hymen as well as the oval form are made by the 

 examining fingers separating the vertical edges. 



(&) The naked-eye arrangement of the vaginal rugm and columns. 

 — On examining the vagina in adults, preferably in a multi- 

 parous married woman, one notices a distinct difference in the 

 upper and lower straits. The lowest inch of the vagina is 

 narrowed and has rugcC or columns, in the main running longi- 

 tudinally. Above this the vagina is transversely wider and has 

 its rugcC transverse. This difference to the naked eye is very 

 striking, and has not hitherto been sufficiently noted. The 

 anterior and posterior columns I consider not as septal remains 

 of the Miillerian portion of the vagina, but as the remains of 

 the original partition between the Wolffian bulbs. 



AVhile, then, the hymen is derived from the Wolffian bulbs, as 

 I have indicated, it may be asked what evidence there is as 

 to the extent of the participation in vaginal formation of the 

 urinogenital sinus. As we have already seen, the Miillerian 

 ducts in the early foetus end in the eminence of Milller ; the 

 Wolffian ducts open below them. It follows, therefore, from 

 what has gone before, that the upper portion of the urinogenital 

 sinus enters into the formation of the vagina, and that the lower 

 end of the vagina is due to a blending of Wolffian ducts and 

 urinogenital sinus. This lower portion measures, in the adult, 

 about an inch. I base this estimate on the different naked-eye 



