750 HANDBOOK OF PHYSIOLOGY. 



lower ends. The glands are imbedded in a delicate connective tissue, 

 consisting of round and spindle-shaped cells. 



The cavity of the uterus corresponds in form to that of the organ 

 itself: it is very small in the unimpregnated state, the sides of its mucous 

 surface being almost in contact. Into its upper part, at each side, opens 

 the canal of the corresponding Fallopian tube: below, it communicates 

 with the vagina by a fissure-like opening in its neck, the os uteri, the 

 margins of which are distinguished into two lips, an anterior and pos- 

 terior. 



The Vagina is a membranous canal, five or six inches (12.5 to 15 

 cm.) long, extending obliquely downward and forward from the neck 

 of the uterus, which it embraces, to the external organs of generation. 

 It is lined with mucous membrane, covered with stratified squamous 

 epithelium, which in the ordinary contracted state of the canal is thrown 

 into transverse folds. External to the mucous membrane the walls of 

 the vagina are constructed of unstriped muscle and fibrous tissue, 

 within which in the submucosa, especially around the lower part of the 

 tube, is a layer of erectile tissue. This exists also in the mucosa. The 

 lower extremity of the vagina is embraced by an orbicular muscle, the 

 sphincter vagince; its external orifice, in the virgin, is partially closed by 

 a fold or ring of mucous membrane, termed the hymen. The external 

 organs of generation consist of the clitoris, a small elongated body, 

 .situated above and in the middle line, and constructed of two erectile 

 masses or corpora cavernosa. They are not perforated by the urethra; 

 of two folds of mucous membrane, termed labia internet, or nymplm; and, 

 in front of these,of two other folds, the labia externa, or pudenda, formed 

 of the external integument, and lined internally by mucous membrane. 

 Between the nymphae and beneath the clitoris is an angular space, termed 

 the vestibule, at the centre of whose base is the orifice of the meatus 

 urinarius. Numerous mucous follicles are scattered beneath the mucous 

 membrane composing these parts of the external organs of generation; 

 and at the side of the lower part of the vagina are two larger lobulated 

 glands, vulvo-vaginal or Duverney's glands, which are analogous to Cow- 

 per's glands in the male. The ducts of these glands are about -J- inch 

 (12.5 mm.) long and open immediately external to the hymen at the 

 raid-point of the lateral wall of the vaginal orifice. The vulvo-vaginal 

 glands secrete a thick brownish mucus. 



THE GENITAL ORGANS OF THE MALE. 



The male organs of generation comprise the two Testes, in which 



the semen is formed; each with a duct, the Vas Deferens, and accessory 



Vesicula Seminalis; the Penis, an erectile organ, through which the 



