GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 201 



downwards by the side of it. The Ovaries appear rather larger 

 and more spongy : their relative situation is necessarily lower. 



The change in the Uterus itself is particularly interesting. 

 The great increase of its size is not attended with any co/iside- 

 rable diminution of thickness in its substance ; nor are the 

 arteries much less convoluted than before pregnancy, as 

 might have been expected. They are greatly enlarged in 

 diameter, and the orifices of the exhalent vessels on the internal 

 surface of the uterus are much more perceptible. 



The veins are much more enlarged than the arteries, and in 

 some places appear more than half an inch in diameter. They 

 are not regularly cylindrical, but rather flat. They anastomose 

 so as to form an irregular net-work. 



The uterus appears much more fibrous and muscular in the 

 gravid than in the unimpregnated state. The contractile power 

 of the gravid uterus is not only proved by the expulsion of its 

 contents, but also by very vigorous contractions, which are 

 occasionally observed by accoucheurs. 



Although the general effects which result from the particular conditions of the 

 uterus in pregnancy, menstruation, &c., evince that the influence of this 

 organ upon the whole system is very great, yet it seems probable that the sex- 

 ual peculiarities of females are especially dependent upon the ovaria. 



This sentiment is confirmed by an account of a woman in whom the ovaria 

 were deficient, which is published in the London Philosophical Transactions 

 for 1805, by 'Mr. C. Pears. The subject lived to the age of twenty-nine years. 

 She ceased to grow after the age of ten years, and therefore was not more 

 than four feet six inches in height : her breadth across the hips was but nine 

 inches, although the breadth of the shoulders was fourteen. Her breast and 

 nipples were never enlarged more than they are in the male subject. There 

 was no hair on the pubis, nor were there any indications of puberty in mind 

 nor body. She never menstruated. At the age of twenty-nine she died of a 

 complain 1 : in the breast, attended with convulsions. The uterus and os tineas 

 were found not increased beyond their usual size during infancy. The cavity 

 of the uterus was of the common shape, but its coats were membranous. The 

 Fallopian tubes were pervious. " The Ovaria were so indistinct that they rather 

 showed the rudiments which ought to have formed them, than any 'part of the 

 natural structure. 



Another case, which confirms the aforesaid sentiment, is related in one of the 

 French periodical publications. 



It has been long known that a race of savages near the Cape of Good Hope 

 were distinguished from the generality of their species by a peculiarity about 

 the pudendum. An account of this structure has been given with some 

 precision by Messrs. Peron and Lesueur, in a paper which was read to the 



