THE SEXUAL ORGANS. 255 



oviducts. The middle layer is the strongest, presents trans- 

 verse, longitudinal, and oblique, flat bundles, which are inter- 

 laced in a complex manner, and contains larger vessels, chiefly 

 veins, whence, especially in the pregnant uterus, it presents a 

 spongy appearance. The innermost layer, lastly, is again 

 thinner, and formed of a network of more slender, longitudinal, 

 and of stronger, transverse and oblique fibres, which, at the 

 openings of the oviducts, frequently form very distinct rings. 

 In the fundus, where the uterus is thickest, the middle layer is 

 strongest, and often appears to be composed of several laminae; 

 whilst, at the thinner cervix, transverse fibres especially, inter- 

 mixed with isolated longitudinal ones, are met with. In the 

 neighbourhood of the external os uteri, and in that part itself, 

 highly developed transverse fibres lie immediately beneath the 

 mucous membrane, and may be described as an occlusor of it 

 — sphincter uteri. As to the elements, all these layers consist 

 of short (0*02 — O03'") fusiform fibre-cells, with elongated oval 

 nuclei, which, on account of the great quantity of the nucleated 

 embryonic connective tissue, of the same constitution as in the 

 stroma ovarii, by which the layers are pervaded, can only with 

 difficulty be isolated, and even with the aid of nitric acid, of 

 20§, are not brought into view so distinctly as elsewhere. 



The mucous membrane of the uterus is of a white or whitish-red 

 colour ; it is closely united with the muscular coat, from which 

 it cannot be raised; in transverse sections, however, it is dis- 

 tinguishable from it by its, mostly, brighter colour, though 

 rarely presenting any marked line of demarcation. Except in 

 its fundamental substance, consisting of the connective tissue 

 which exists everywhere in the female genital organs, containing 

 undeveloped nuclei and fibre-cells without elastic elements, and 

 the epithelium, which throughout appears as a ciliated epithelium 

 with pale cells, as much as 0*01 6'" in size, and delicate cilia 

 which vibrate from without to within, the mucous membrane 

 is differently constituted in the body and fundus, and in the 

 canal of the cervix. In the former situations it is more deli- 

 cate, redder, and thinner (from \ — 1'"), smooth on the inner 

 aspect, and without papilla, but occasionally presenting a few 

 large folds. In it are found very numerous minute glands, 

 the utricular glands of the uterus, or uterine glands [glandules 

 utricular es s. uterince), which bear the closest resemblance to 



