58 OF THE SEXUAL ORGANS. 



as in the three examples cited by Madame Boivin, us was seen by 

 Cassan and M. Williaume, who saw one case each, and as is fre- 

 quently met with in Persia, Egypt, Turkey, and throughout almost 

 the whole of Africa, where the barbarous custom of infibulation is 

 still practised. Borelli says he saw, in the hospital of Castro, a little 

 girl who had two vulvas, one above the other. It might also be 

 said that where the vagina is completely double, there are two 

 lateral vulvas. The same anomalies are found to occur in the 

 nymphae, which Neubauer in one case found to be triple, and which 

 depend, too, more frequently on an acquired disease than on a pri- 

 mitive fault of the conformation. 



SECTION 2. 



Internal Genital Organs. 



The internal parts of generation in women consist of the womb, 

 the vagina, the fallopian tubes, the ovaries, and the ligamentous at- 

 tachments. 



§. I. Of the Uterus {matrix), 



151. The uterus or womb is a hollow muscle, destined to lodge 

 and nourish the ovum during pregnancy, and expel it by the process 

 of labor. It is therefore essentially the organ of gestation, and not 

 of generation, as has been erroneously repeated by several authors. 



152. Situation. Situated in the pelvic excavation, behind the 

 bladder, in front of the rectum, beneath the small intestines, and 

 continuous below with the vagina, the uterus, in its unimpre^nated 

 state, is generally placed in the direction of the axis of the superior 

 strait. 



153. Configuration. Its shape is that of a pear or a small flat- 

 tened gourd, or further, of a truncated cone, compressed antero-pos- 

 teriorly, its base being turned upwards, its apex downwards. 



154. Division. For the purpose of explaining the phenomena of 

 pregnancy, the womb is divided into fundus, body, and neck. The 

 fundus comprises all that portion that is found above a horizontal 

 line drawn from one fallopian tube to the other; the body extends 

 from this same line to the contracted portion which marks the com- 

 mencement of the neck; and the latter, more or less swelled, con- 

 stitutes the lower portion of the organ. 



A. External Surface. 

 155. The external surfacB of the womb has been divided into, 1. 



