232 



NORMAL HISTOLOGY. 



sist of both medullated and pale fibres ; the principal trunks run in 

 company with the blood-vessels as far as the mucous membrane ; 

 their ultimate distribution and mode of termination are still un- 

 certain. 



THE UTERUS. 



The uterus being the fused morphological continuations of the 

 oviducts, similarity approaching identity in the structure of the two 

 segments of the original tube is to be expected ; this resemblance, in 



FIG. 273. 



Section of human uterus, including mucosa (a) and adjacent muscular tissue (b) ; c, epithelium of 

 free surface and tubular uterine glands (d) ; f, deepest layer of mucosa, containing fundi of glands ; 

 h, strands of non-striped muscle penetrating within the mucosa. 



fact, exists. The uterus is composed of a mucous, a muscular, and 

 a serous coat, modified to meet the demands of special functions. 



The mucosa, 1-2 mm. in thickness, consists of a tunica propria 

 formed of delicate bundles of fibrous tissue, intermingled with some 

 elastic fibres and many leucocytes, and the epithelium. The latter 

 is a single layer of ciliated columnar cells, whose ciliary current 

 is directed towards the cervix. The tunica propria contains numer- 

 ous slightly wavy tubular uterine glands, limited by a delicate 

 basement-membrane and lined by an extension of the ciliated colum- 

 nar epithelium of the adjacent mucous surface. Since a submucosa 

 is wanting in the uterine wall, the blind and often forked extremities 

 of the glands abut directly upon the muscular tissue. 



The mucosa of the uterine cervix differs materially from that 

 of the body of the organ, being thicker and firmer, and within the 

 lower third beset with minute papillae covered with stratified squa- 

 mous epithelium. In the upper half or two-thirds of the cervix 



