984 GENERATIVE APPARATUS. 



4. When the organs have been studied in situ, tliey are removed — the broad ligaments 

 being preserved— and sprciid on a table, in order to study their interior. 



5. An injection into the galactopliorous sinus allows a good idea to be formed of the 

 general disposition of the mammary gland. 



These organs resemble those of the male in their general disposition. Thus 

 we find in the female : 1. Two secretory organs — the ovaries — analogous to the 

 testicles, in which the germ is elaborated. 2. The uterine (Fallopian) tube, 

 disposed — like the epididymis and vas deferens— as a flexuous canal, through 

 which the ovum passes on leaving the ovary. 3. The uterus, a single reservoir 

 formed of two lateral moieties which may be compared to the vesiculte seminales, 

 as it is there that the germ remains until it is fully developed. 4. The vagina, 

 a membranous canal analogous to the urethra, and giving passage to the foetus 

 after it has been formed in the uterus : this canal, which receives the penis 

 during copulation, also shows, at its exterior opening, the vulva — an erectile 

 apparatus — and the clitoris, which is nothing more than a rudimentary corpus 

 cavernosum of the male. The female has also certain glands, which, in many 

 species, exist in a rudimentary form in the male : for instance, the mammae, 

 organs for the secretion of milk, the first nourishment of the young animal. 



(The glands of Duverney, in the female vagina, seem to be analogous to 

 Cowper's glands in the male, as they are present in the females of all animals 

 where the latter exist in the male, and their secretion appears to be of the same 

 character.) 



It may be remarked, after this observation, that the male and female genital 

 apparatuses are constructed on the same type — a circumstance which is most 

 clearly demonstrated at an early period of intra-uterine life, when it is impossible 

 to distinguish the sexes. 



1. The Ovaries (Figs. 529, 535). 



Situation — Form — Relations. — The ovaries (testes muliehres) — the essential 

 organs of generation in the female — are two ovoid bodies, smaller than the 

 testicles, though of the same shape, situated in the abdominal cavity,^ and 

 suspended from the sublumbar region — where they correspond with the intestinal 

 convolutions — a little behind the kidneys. Smooth on the surface, these organs 

 present, in the middle of their upper face, a deep and more or less oblique 

 fissure, resembling the hilus of the kidney ; this gives attachment to the paviUon 

 of the tube. 



Means of attachment. —The ovary floats at the anterior border of the broad 

 ligament ; it is also sustained by the vessels that enter it, and by a small cord of 

 unstriped muscular fibres — the ligament of the ovary — which attaches it to the 

 uterus. 



Structure. — The organization of the ovaries comprises a serous membraney 

 a tunica albuginea, proper tissue, and the Graafian vesicles embedded therein. 



Serous membrane. — This is a continuation of the broad ligaments ; it covers 

 the whole organ (except at the hilus), adhering closely to the tunica albuginea. 



Tunica alhwjinea. — This is similar to that enveloping the testicle, being a 

 very resisting fibrous covering which sends prolongations into the substance of 

 the ovary. 



» Tlie ovaries sometimes leave this situation. Thus Dupont, of Plazac, has observed them, 

 in four swine, occupying little cavities, analogous to those of the male scrotum, in the perinseaj 

 region {Journal des Vet^rinaires du Midi, December, 1869). 



