OF THE SEXUAL ORGANS. 7l 



a muscular nature. Dionis asserted that the use of the round liga- 

 ments was to depress the os tincae by contracting during the sexual 

 embrace, and thus to bring it closer to the male organ; but as their 

 origins are lower than their insertions, it is manifest that their con- 

 traction in that 'case would produce a rather contrary effect. But 

 further, the womb without them would be always retroverted by the 

 bladder, which is repeatedly distended with urine in the course of 

 every twenty-four hours: they also uphold it until towards the mid- 

 dle of pregnancy; but further than this nothing is certainly known in 

 regard to their uses, and there is no occasion for me to enter into an 

 argument against the opinion of the ancients, especially of Spigelius, 

 who supposed that the semen passed through them in its passage to 

 the clitoris. Being put on the stretch by the ascent of the womb, 

 it is possible that they may, when the woman is on foot, and parti- 

 cularly when on her knees, occasion pretty smart pains in the groins 

 and thighs.* 



180. Douglass, A. Petit, Sue, &;c., have noticed four other liga- 

 ments, two anterior (utero-vesical of Madame Boivin), and two pos- 

 terior {idero-sacral, id.); the two former, very small in most women, 

 passing from the sides of the cervix uteri to the lateral parts of the 

 bas-fond of the bladder, are occasionally composed, in addition to 

 their peritoneal coat, of a few fleshy fibres, that seem to be detach- 

 ed from the antero-inferior transverse layer of the neck of the womb. 

 The latter, which are much stronger and more constantly observed, 

 originate a little lower down, from the posterior surface of the cer- 

 vix, run backwards, each forming a crescent, the concavity of which 

 looks towards the median line, and are attached to the sides of the 

 rectum, where they are lost in the cellular tissue and peritoneum 

 which invests the front of the sacrum; from numerous facts that 

 have come under my notice, I am of the opinion that they are of 

 the same nature as the round ligaments, and that their fleshy fibres 

 are furnished by the postero-inferior transverse layer of the uterus; 

 consequently, it may be conceived that they may lend to prevent the 

 retroversion of the womb, and be in this respect congeners of the 

 round ligaments; that their use is to prevent the os tiucae from being 

 carried forwards; and that the knowledge of them is far from being 

 uniniportant to the accoucheur. 



* It is very common for women laboring under prolapsus uteri to complain of 

 pain and soreness in the regions traversed by tlie cords. I am accustomed to 

 the prescription of leeches for tliese regions, in many cases of uterine disease — 

 as I consider tlial blood taken from capillaries here, actually effects depletion of 

 the vessels of the uterine circulation. — M. 



