1164 



FEMALE GENERATIVE ORGANS. 



enclosing the common urine-sexual opening. Each labium is formed of two folds 

 of integument : covered with hair externally ; internally, smooth and pinkish. 

 The inner fold is continuous with the genito-urinary mucous tract. Between the 

 two folds is a quantity of areolar tissue, fat, and a tissue resembling the dartos of 

 the scrotum, besides vessels, nerves, and glands. The labia are thicker in front, 

 where they form by their meeting the anterior commissure. Posteriorly they are 

 not really joined, but appear to become lost in the neighboring integument, 

 terminating close to, and nearly parallel with, each other. Together with the 

 connecting skin between them, they form the posterior commissure or posterior 

 boundary of the vulval orifice. The interval between the posterior commissure and 



x:S Urethra. \ 3 - 



Dee 



\ransv. pennsei. Unstriped muscular -':-..'& 



J- 



^Vagina. 



FIG. 743. Vertical median section of the temaie pelvis. 



the anus, about an inch to an inch and a quarter in length, constitutes the peri- 

 naeum or base of the'perineal body. The fourchette is the anterior edge of the 

 latter, and between it and the hymen is a depression, the fossa navicularis. The 

 labia correspond to the scrotum in the male. 



The Labia Minora, or Nymphae, are two small cutaneous folds, situated within 

 the labia majora, and extending from the clitoris obliquely downward, outward, 

 and backward for about an inch and a half on each side of the orifice of the 

 vagina, between which and the labia majora they are lost. Anteriorly, the two 

 labia minora meet and form ihefrcenum of the clitoris. The prepuce of the clitoris, 

 passing backward on each side, is inserted, as it were, into each labium minus. 

 The nymphae are really modified skin. Their nternal surfaces have numerous 

 sebaceous follicles. 



The Clitoris is an erectile structure analogous to the corpora cavernosa of the 

 penis. It is situated beneath the anterior commissure, partially hidden between the 

 anterior extremities of the labia minora. It is connected to the rami of the os pubis 



