106 OF TRUE PREGNANCY. 



verse eight and a half. At the level of the tubes, its circumference 

 is about twenty-six inches, and only thirteen at the uterine portion 

 of the cervix, which, according to Madame Boivin, ought then to be 

 five inches higher than the external orifice. Levret says that the 

 superficies of the womb, which, when unimpregnated, is only equal 

 to sixteen inches, is three hundred and thirty-nine at the commence- 

 ment of labor; that its cavity, which is four-fifths of an inch in the 

 former case, rises to four hundred and eight in the latter; that its 

 mass, which is only four inches and a third before pregnancy begins, 

 is fifty-one at child-birth; but the cavity of the womb is evidently 

 carried too far by Levret, for in this way it might hold seventeen 

 pounds of water, while the whole ovum in general does not weigh 

 more than from seven to ten pounds.* 



269. Form. Instead of remaining flattened on its two surfaces, 

 the womb becomes rounded, and soon grows of a pyriform shape. 

 The vaginal angle seems to contract; to grow smaller; its orifice 

 sometimes becomes circular, or ceases to represent a simple linear 

 or transverse slit, particularly in first pregnancies; on other occa- 

 sions it is pretty largely open, its lips become thicker and softer, 

 chiefly in those women who have borne several children. In some 

 instances of first pregnancy, it seems to close completely up, so that 

 it can scarcely be distinguished by the finger. 



270. The womb next gradually assumes the form of an oval, with 

 its point downwards. Its posterior wall, which was, even before 

 impregnation (155), more protuberant than its anterior one, grows 

 so disproportionately that the tubes seem to descend considerably, 

 until their roots appear to answer to the point of union of the pos- 

 terior two-thirds, and anterior third of the uterine circumference. 

 Its fundus also enlarges very much. Of dimensions nearly equal in 

 every direction, abom the fifth or sixth month the organ of gestation 

 exhibits the figure of a spheroidal vase terminated by a very short 

 neck; it might be compared to a hog's bladder, with the urethral 

 extremity served round with thread for the space of an inch or two: 

 supposing that some one should now unwind the thread by degrees, 

 from above downwards, while another blows into the bladder from 

 the fundus, so as to distend it, we can acquire a pretty clear idea of 

 the gradual efi'acement of the apex of the womb. 



271. At the close of pregnancy, the neck is nothing more than a 

 ring, formed merely by the lips of the os tinc<e, and the thickness 

 of which varies according as the woman is in her first pregnancy, or , 



* A patient under my care gave birth to twins, one of which weighed in the 

 scales, 8^ and the other 8 pounds; the placenta was at least 1 pound, the water 

 10 ounces=18 pounds. — M. 



