CHAPTER I. 

 IMPREGNATION. 



SEC. 1. ON SOME STRUCTURAL FEATURES OF THE 

 FEMALE ORGANS. 



The uterus and its appendages. 



924. THE uterus is a somewhat flask-shaped, hollow, mus- 

 cular organ, of which the wider upper part, or body, is con- 

 tinued above on each side as a narrow tube, the Fallopian tube, 

 the roof between being called the fundus, while the narrow lower 

 end, neck or cervix, projects into the cavity of the vagina, and ends 

 in a transverse slit-like orifice, the os uteri, distinguished as the os 

 e,rternum from the os internum or constriction marking the junction 

 of body and cervix. 



The Fallopian tube, thin and slender where it joins the uterus, 

 into the cavity of which its canal opens by a very narrow orifice, 

 runs in the free margin of the broad ligament in a horizontal course 

 which is near the uterus straight but afterwards wavy, and ends in 

 a trumpet-shaped mouth opening free into the peritoneal cavity. 

 Like that of the alimentary canal, the wall of the tube consists of 

 an outer muscular coat, covered over the larger part of its circum- 

 ference by peritoneum, and of an inner mucous coat. The muscular 

 coat is composed of plain muscular fibres, for the most part disposed 

 circularly, with more scanty longitudinal or oblique bundles on 

 the outside. The mucous coat consists of a vascular dermis lined 

 with a single layer of columnar ciliated cells. No glands are 

 present, or if present are inconspicuous, but the mucous mem- 

 brane is thrown into a large number of irregular folds, giving the 

 surface a glandular appearance. 



The margin of the trumpet-shape end or mouth is not even but 



