THE VAGINA. 717 



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, and probably only separated from each 

 other by mucus. 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 distin- 

 guished into two lips, an anterior and posterior. In the 

 mucous membrane of the cervix are found several mucous 

 follicles, termed ovula or glandulae Nabothi : they pro- 

 bably form the jelly-like substance by which the os uteri is 

 usually found closed. 



The vagina is a membranous canal, six or eight inches 

 long, extending obliquely downwards and forwards from 

 the neck of the uterus, which it embraces, to the external 

 organs of generation. It is lined with mucous membrane, 

 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 

 fibro-cellular tissue, within which, especially around the 

 lower part of the tube, is a layer of erectile tissue. The 

 lower extremity of the vagina is embraced by an orbicular 

 muscle, the constrictor vaginae ; 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, 

 like the male penis, of two erectile corpora cavernosa, but 

 unlike it, without a corpus spongiosum, and not perforated 

 by the urethra ; of two folds of mucous membrane, termed 

 labia interna, or nympha ; and, in front of these, of two 

 other folds, the labia externa, or pudenda, formed of the 

 external integument, and lined internally by mucous mem- 

 brane. Between the nymphse 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 



