68 OF THE SEXUAL ORGANS. 



womb, with which they are continuous, to near the ihac fossas, 

 where they terminate in a laciniated and loose extremity, called the 

 devil's-bit (morsus diaboli,) or fimbriated extremity of the tube, 

 This tortuous tube is inclosed in the upper edge of the broad liga- 

 ment; its cavity, which, at the womb, is large enough to admit of a 

 middle sized probe, at first contracts by degrees, so that near its 

 middle a bristle can scarcely be passed through it, it then enlarges, 

 and soon acquires a diameter of two or three lines. Among the 

 fringes which terminate its loose extremity is one that is harder and 

 longer than the rest, which fixes itself to the ovary, and seems to be 

 the real continuation of the tube. 



175. Structure. The composition of the seminiferous tubes is in 

 all respects similar to that of the uterus itself. They are enveloped 

 externally by the peritoneum, which adheres closely to them, and a 

 mucous membrane, folded in the direction of their length, lines them 

 within. A pretty thin layer of fleshy fibre is found betwixt these 

 two laminag; its fibres are of two sorts, like as in the small intes- 

 tines: one sort, longitudinal, are only a prolongation of the trans- 

 verse stratum of the surface and fundus of the uterus; the others, 

 which are circular, cut the former at right angles, and seem to be 

 appendages of the orbicular muscle of Ruysch. As to the internal 

 coat, its existence has been denied; but to the proofs related above, 

 (166) 1 may add, that in a woman of middle age, I and M. Baude- 

 locque, Jun. saw the mucous membrane of the Fallopian tube as 

 movable, and as easily separable, as it is in the oesophagus; its valvu- 

 lar folds, mentioned by those authors who assert that the ovule may 

 easily pass to the womb, but cannot possibly retrograde towards the 

 ovary, and especially, that the semen masculinum cannot pass 

 through the tube, have been the products only of the imagination of 

 those who needed them for the defence of their preconceived theories. 

 The tubes receive all their vessels from the ovarian branches; their 

 nerves belong to the great sympathetic, and, like the uterus, their 

 basis is an elastic, fibrous, cellular tissue. 



§. III. Ovaries {ovaria). 



176. The ovaries, long known as the testes muliebres, and which 

 may be called the female seminal glands, are situated in the upper 

 part of the broad ligaments, behind, and a little below the tubes, 

 near the superior angles of the uterus, to which they are attached 

 by the ligament of the ovary, Oblong, slightly flattened from front 

 to rear, being of the size and almost of the shape of an almond or a 

 large bean, the ovaries have a superior, convex and loose edge, while 

 their inferior edge is straight, receives vessels, and proceeds to join 



