112 FEMALE ORGANS OF GENERATION". 



sion, it leaves a small orifice for the passage of mucus and of 

 menstrual blood. In my own observations, I have found it most 

 frequently crescentic, the convexity of the crescent presenting 

 downwards, and the horns upwards; but in some cases, it is to 

 one side. Next in frequency to the lunated is the circular shape, 

 where it surrounds completely the orifice and leaves a hole in 

 its own centre. There are some other varieties, such as its be- 

 ing fleshy, fasciculated, unequally divided into two portions, and 

 so on, which are narrated by different writers. Being simply 

 a duplicature of the mucous membrane, it is generally so weak 

 as to be ruptured at the first act of copulation, or even from 

 slighter causes during infancy; but occasionally, it becomes 

 thickened, and so strong as to require division with the knife. 

 After the rupture of the hymen, its place is indicated in subse- 

 quent life by from two to six small tubercles, called Carunculse- 

 Myrtiformes, which are its remains. 



The peritoneum, in descending from the uterus, anteriorly, 

 touches the top of the vagina for a little distance, and is then 

 reflected to the bladder, but posteriorly, almost the upper half 

 of the vagina has a peritoneal coat before this membrane is re- 

 flected to the rectum. The attachment of the vagina to the 

 bladder is strong and close just above the urethra, but its con- 

 nexion with the rectum is by rather loose cellular substance. 



SECT. IIP. OF THE UTERUS, Ai\D ITS APPENDAGES. 



The Uterus, or Womb, is a compressed pyriform body, the 

 larger end of which stands upwards, while the lower is directed 

 downwards, and is attached to the vagina.* Unimpregnated, 



* This is commonly represented by anatomists in their plates and descriptions 

 as the position of the womb ; it is, however, more so in advanced pregnancy 

 than when empty. In my dissections generally, I have found the posterior face 

 of the womb downwards, reposing upon the concavity of the rectum, and the os 

 tincae obliquely forwards; this position being probably produced by the super- 

 incumbence of the small intestines, and, especially, when the bladder is empty. 

 When the latter is full, the peritoneum is reflected from the centre of the ute- 

 rus to the posterior face of the bladder, and its traction has the effect of erect- 

 ing the uterus in part, from its nearly horizontal direction. In a dissection of a 

 female, April 9, 1838, aged eighteen, who died from an affection of the brain, 

 there being every evidence of soundness in the genital organs, I found the rec- 

 tum making a curve to the right side of the inferior part of the sacrum, and the 

 body of the womb, reposing in the concavity of the latter. 



