646 SPECIAL HISTOLOGY. 



whilst in Man no opportunity has as yet Jbeen afforded of noticing 

 them, and it is only from the circumstance, that in this case also in 

 normal ovaries, follicles of the most various sizes are always met with, 

 that a continual formation of them may be concluded to take place. 

 In Man, it is also probable, that the times of conception and of men- 

 struation are those in which, especially, these productions take place, 

 which in animals, as respects their histology, originate in exactly the 

 same way, as will be afterwards described when we speak of the first 

 follicles of the embryo. [See Appendix, corpora lutea. TRS.] 



206. Oviducts and uterus. Of the three coats of the oviduct, the 

 most external, which belongs to the peritoneum, presents nothing 

 worthy of remark. The middle, or smooth muscular coat, is of tolera- 

 ble thickness, especially in the internal half of the duct ; and consists 

 of external, longitudinal, and internal transverse fibres, the elements of 

 which, even at the time of pregnancy, can be isolated with some diffi- 

 culty, and are intermixed with much more undeveloped connective 

 tissue of the same form as in the stroma of the ovary. The innermost 

 coat is the mucous membrane, a thin, whitish-red, soft layer, which is 

 connected with the muscular tunic by a small quantity of submucous 

 connective tissue, presents no glands or villi, though it has a few lon- 

 gitudinal folds, and consists of undeveloped connective tissue, with 

 many fusiform formative cells. On its inner surface, from the uterus 

 to the free border of the fimbrice, lies a single layer of conical or 

 filiform, ciliated cells, of 0*006 O'Ol of a line, whose distinct cilia 

 effect a current running from the ostium abdominale to the ost. uteri- 

 num, which probably assists in the locomotion of the ovula, but not of 

 the spermatic fluid. 



The uterus is constituted in the same way as the oviducts, except 

 that the muscular coat and mucous membrane are much stronger, and, 

 in some respects, differently constructed. In the pale red muscular 

 coat, three layers may, most conveniently, be distinguished, which, 

 however, cannot, as elsewhere (in the intestine for instance), be sharply 

 defined from each other. The external layer is composed of longitudi- 

 nal and transverse fibres, the former of which, forming a continuous, 

 thin stratum, intimately united to the serous coat, extend over the 

 fundus and the anterior and posterior surfaces, as far as the cervix, 

 whilst the stronger transverse fibres surround the organ, and are also, 

 to some extent, continued beyond the uterus, into the ligg. rotunda, 

 ovarii, and lata, and upon the oviducts. The middle layer is the 

 strongest, presents transverse, longitudinal, and oblique, flat bundles, 

 which are interlaced in a complex manner, and contains larger vessels, 

 chiefly veins, whence, especially in the pregnant uterus, it presents a 

 spongy appearance. The innermost layer, lastly, is again thinner, and 



