OF THE SEXUAL ORGANS. 65 



furnished with them, according to most of the modern anatomists; 

 but let these organs be examined when their coats, strongly hyper- 

 trophied, have been long distended, and we shall be soon forced to 

 admit that they possess a muscular coat, as the ancients believed, 

 and as I have seen myself. The womb, previously to puberty, is 

 only a rudimental muscle; when not gravid, its organisation, it is 

 true, is but a sketch, but it is only towards the end of pregnancy 

 that we can possibly test its nature. Every circumstance tends to 

 establish that the cellulo-fibrous, elastic yellow tissue which com- 

 poses the basis of the inter-laminar and inter spinal ligaments of the 

 vertebrae, constitutes also the web of a very great variety of other 

 organs. It is no where more abundant than in the uterus. Hence 

 it appears that this element holds a middle place, and serves in some 

 sort as a passage between the cellular and muscular systems; the 

 chemists have detected fibrine in it, and I have seen it, on various 

 points, transformed into real contractile tissue. I am scarcely afraid 

 to assert that wherever it is met with, it may accidentally develop 

 muscular fibres, and that these fibres exist naturally in some zoologi- 

 cal species. 



169. In order, therefore, to understand the essence of the uterine 

 tissue, it ought to be studied during its gravid state: then only is it 

 red, contractile, formed of tomentose fibres; then only does it con- 

 tain a great proportion of the fibrine; and presents, in a word, all 

 the characters of the most perfect muscular tissue. 



170. Disposition of the fibres. Vesalius, Malpighi, and the 

 first anatomists who admitted their existence, contented themselves 

 with saying that the fibres of the womb are so interlaced, that it 

 is impossible to trace out their direction. Ruysch and some others 

 advanced, that being principally collected about the fundus of the 

 organ, they compose an orbicular muscle, a sort of disc, the use 

 of which is to detach the placenta at the period ofslabor. Hunter, 

 Sue, &c., admit that it forms a number of layers variously crossed; 

 A. Leroy teaches that they give rise to two layers of muscles, 

 one internal and one external; and M. Meckel, who, in common 

 with several German anatomists, partially adopts this sentiment, 

 thinks that each of the two principal layers ought to be divided 

 into several other secondary layers. Baudelocque, and most of the 

 French anatomists, abandoning all hopes of assigning to these fibres 

 a determinate direction, have contented themselves with teaching 

 that they are disposed in loops, parallel to the axis of the uterus, 

 or in horizontal circles; that the body and fundus of the womb are 

 chiefly composed of the former, while the latter are found more 



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