174 



PHYSIOLOGY 



CHAP. 



uterine mouth, or ostium uterinum, of the tube is continuous with 

 its uterine portion, which is 10 mm. long, and with the isthmus, 

 which is 3 to 4 cm. long, and has a calibre of 3 to 4 mm. Then 

 comes the ampulla, which is the principal segment of the oviduct, 

 7 to 8 cm. long, with an average diameter of 7 mm. ; it has thin 

 walls easily distended and compressed, and an undulatory course. 

 Lastly, the abdominal opening, or ostium abdominale, of the tube 

 has a diameter of 2 to 3 mm., and is found in the deepest part of 

 the infundibalum, which dilates to a funnel shape, and at its 

 termination is cut into little tongues called fimbriae. The uterine 



M 



FIG. 60. Section of the mucous membrane of the uterus of young nullipara. Magnified 150 diameters. 

 (Sabotta.) ep, investing epithelium ; gl, uterine glands, variously cut (obliquely or trans- 

 versely, accoi'ding to their axes) ; gl', uterine glands cut along their walls ; tp, tunica propria 

 of the mucosa ; M, thin stratum belonging to tunica muscularis. 



tube is movable or displaceable, specially in its ampullary and 

 infundibular tracts, and resumes its original position with great 

 facility when the cause which has occasioned the displacement has 

 ceased to act. The internal surface of the uterine tube is marked 

 by numerous longitudinal folds, variously developed in the different 

 tracts, as may be seen in Figs. 63 and 64. Its walls consist chiefly 

 of two strong layers of smooth muscular fibres one internal, with 

 a circular course ; the other external, with a longitudinal course. 

 These muscular layers are enveloped on the outside by a tunica 

 adventitia of connective tissue and a peritoneal serous tunic : they 

 are furnished on the inside with a tunica mucosa formed of cylin- 

 drical ciliated epithelium, with a movement of the cilia directed 



