00 OF THE SEXUAL ORGANS. 



is pretty often observed at a certain stage of pregnancy, in women 

 who have borne children before; which it is not always an easy 

 matter, however, to avoid. 



156. Before women become mothers, the lips of the os tincae 

 are smooth, regular and pretty firm, although supple; the whole neck 

 terminates in an extremity which is rather accwmina/cc? than bulging. 

 After one or two confinements, its slit is wider, more uneven; the 

 free extremities of the lips are farther apart; the anterior is elon- 

 gated, often ends in a point, and exhibits tubercles or bumps, which 

 are also found on the posterior lip, and separated from each other by 

 crevices of greater or less depth, and in greater or less number, 

 chiefly in the left. It is true, however, that this last mentioned dis- 

 position does not demonstrate with mathematical certainty that there 

 have been several pregnancies, for it may be occasioned by disease. 

 It should also be understood, that the contrary state persists in some 

 women, after a great many lyings in. Thus, in a woman, in her 

 seventh pregnancy, I have seen the vaginal angle of the womb more 

 regular than in another whom I examined by way of comparison, and 

 who was in her first pregnancy: but in this, as in every thing else, 

 we should remember the rule without forgetting the exceptions. 



B. Internal Surface. 



157. The womb presents an internal surface, which is also called 

 its cavity, and which the accoucheurs divide into superior portion or 

 cavity of the body, and inferior portion or cavity of the neck. 



158. Cavity of the body. The first, of a triangular shape, with 

 sides separated from each other only by a layer of mucus which is 

 more or less thick, sometimes exhibits, on the median line, a sort of 

 raphe or crest, which runs through its whole length, and is joined 

 by other oblique or transverse lines. The sides of this cavity, as 

 well as its bottom, are almost straight, sometimes slightly convex in 

 young girls, while they generally remain pretty concave after a 

 lying-in. Its two superior angles are continuous with the origin of 

 the fallopian tubes, which are sometimes expanded like a funnel, and 

 ought, according to M. Geoffroi St Hilaire, to be regarded as the 

 rudiment of the aduterum, which is remarked in most of the mam- 

 miferse; its inferior angle is called the superior, uterine or internal 

 orifice of the neck, and is the point by which the two cavities of the 

 womb communicate with each other. 



159. Cavity of the neck. The cavity of the neck of an oval 

 shape, is twelve or fifteen lines in length, and five or six lines in 

 width at its widest part, and one or two lines from front to rear. 

 On its two walls, and particularly on the posterior one, are found 



