494 URO-GENITAL SYSTEM. 



plished by other vessels. Of this nature are the nasal, pul- 

 monary, and intestinal hemorrhagies, which sometimes occur 

 in women at the catamenial period. Recently a case has been 

 reported (Tueffard, Tin. Med., 1872) of a woman whose breasts 

 every month were the seat of a painful swelling, followed by 

 a dribbling at first of serous fluid, then bloody, which con- 

 dition lasted during eight days. 



Vagina. The pavement epithelium of the vagina and of 

 the neck of the womb is not inactive during the phenomenon 

 of menstruation : an epithelial desquamation, upon a smaller 

 scale, occurs in these places also, in consequence of which 

 occurs a thick whitish product. In certain frequent and 

 pathological conditions this desquamation is permanent, and 

 forms a white or yellowish discharge, commonly known as 

 "whites," or leucorrhoea, from the vagina, and especially 

 from the neck of the womb. 



The external genital organs likewise give off an analogous 

 epithelial desquamation, but more nearly resembles a seba- 

 ceous product, or more like the smegma prmputialis. 



The vagina and the external genital organs especially serve 

 for the purposes of copulation, whose object is fecundation. 



HI. FECUNDATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE 

 FERTILIZED OVUM. 



I. FECUNDATION. 



FECUNDATION is the result of the encounter of the ovum and 

 spermatozoids. We know that the male organ is arranged 

 for the ejaculation of sperm. The female organs destined to 

 receive this are : 



a. External genital organs, which have erectile organs 

 (bulbus vestibuli sen vaginae, and cavernous body of the 

 clitoris), rudimentary but analogous to those, of the man; 

 these organs, and especially the region of the clitoris, analo- 

 gous to the glans penis, are the principal seat of voluptuous 

 venereal sensations : 



b. The vagina, at the entrance to which (between the 

 Idbia minora and the carunculoz myrtiformes), open on 

 either side the excretory duct of the two glands of Bartolini ; 

 which are analogous, both from their secretion and product, 

 to Cowper's glands, which we studied in the male. Their 

 product seems to lubricate the entrance to the vagina. These 



