OF THE SEXUAL ORGANS. 75 



long, and sometimes are two, three, or four times as long as the cer- 

 vix, which in the Guinea pig, the hare, &c., can scarcely be said to 

 exist at all. Hence it may be said, that there are in reality two 

 wombs, two tubes, and two ovaries for one single vagina. 



191. Separated in some instances by a very decided contraction 

 from the vulva, and in others continuous, without any line of demar. 

 cation, with the vulva, sometimes twice or thrice as long as the vul- 

 var canal, as in the bitch, sometimes, on the other hand shorter, as 

 in the bear, the vagina of the mammiferae exhibits numerous varie- 

 ties, in respect to its dimensions, the arrangement of its folds, and 

 its connection with the womb. 



But the most remarkable genital system is that of the didelphic 

 or marsupial animals: besides the tubes, their womb is composed 

 of two horns, each of which opens by an orifice furnished with a 

 valvular cushion into a tliird cavity, largely expanded, of the shape 

 of a cul de sac. This cul de sac rests upon the vagina, and sepa- 

 rates it from its horns, but does not open into its cavity. It sends 

 off a small canal which proceeds downwards and backwards, then 

 mounts upwards in a semicircular manner to the orifice of the vagina, 

 where it opens. Further, on the lower part of the belly, they have 

 a very complicated kind of sac, which contains small teats, and 

 where their young are deposited at a very early period; as if for a 

 second gestation. 



192. Careful dissections of most of the large animals confirm 

 what I have now advanced, touching the nature of the peculiar tissue 

 of the sexual organs of the human female (1G8): the muscular fibres 

 are very evidently seen in the uterine horns of the cow, the mare, 

 &c., where they affect the same arrangement as the small intestines: 

 the same is true of the cervix, where their direction is chiefly trans- 

 versal, and of the broad ligaments, where they constitute several 

 distinct bundles. 



§. VIII. Difference according to Ages. 



193. In the early periods of uterine life, the ovary, very large, 

 and particularly very much elongated, forms a sort of yellowish sac, 

 which is uninterruptedly continuous with the Fallopian tube, as in 

 fishes. Very small in proportion, very slender, and almost lost in 

 the middle of the broad ligaments, it is thicker the nearer we come 

 to the vagina, above which it terminates by a neck that is soft, very 

 projecting, and of a considerable size; at the ninth month the vagina 

 is very long, and wide enough to admit of the introduction of the 

 finger; its mucous membrane, as well as that of the cervix, is very 

 evident; but the body of the ^Yorab is so firm, that it would be diffi- 



