256 SPECIAL HISTOLOGY. 



the Lieberkiihnian glands of the intestine ; they exhibit the 

 form of thickly placed follicles, either simple or bifurcated, and 

 not unfrequently spirally contorted at the end, and in length 

 correspond with the thickness of the mucous membrane, being 

 002 — 0-03'" broad. They consist of a very delicate structure- 

 less membrane, and a uniform cylinder-epithelium, and open 

 either singly or two or three together, with orifices &'" wide. 

 Normally, these glands contain no morphological elements at 

 all, but it is probable that their epithelium is very easily detached, 

 and may appear as a greyish- white secretion filling them. 



In the cervix the mucous membrane is whiter, denser, and 

 thicker (1 — 1J'")j particularly on the anterior and posterior 

 walls, where the well-known plicce palmatce are situated; between 

 which are found larger and smaller, sinuous fossae lined with 

 cylinder-epithelium, and as much as 1"' and more in depth, 

 and differing very essentially from common mucous follicles, 

 although, as the secreting organs of the viscid, crystalline mucus 

 of the cervix uteri, they may be designated the mucous follicles 

 of the uterus. In this region also occur, in great abundance, 

 closed vesicles, i — 1 — 2'" and more in size, filled with the 

 same secretion, and composed of a layer of connective tissue 

 and short cylinder-cells, the so-termed ovula Nabothi, which, 

 like the Graafian follicles, might perhaps be regarded as closed 

 glandular vesicles, bursting periodically, but which probably 

 are nothing more than dilated and closed mucous follicles, and 

 in part also pathological new formations ; they are likewise oc- 

 casionally found in the mucous membrane of the body of the 

 uterus. The inferior third or half of the cervical canal contains 

 verrucose or filiform papillae, 0*1 — 0-3'" long, clothed with 

 ciliated cylinders, containing a single or several vascular loops, 

 with very numerous minute nuclei, and also, perhaps, pale oil- 

 drops in their interior. 



The distribution of the vessels in the unimpregnated uterus, 

 does not present much of a special nature. The larger arterial 

 branches run in the muscular substance, and ramify thence on 

 both sides in the muscular and mucous coats. The latter, as 

 everywhere, has larger vessels in the deeper, and finer in the 

 superficial portion, and these, after they have surrounded the 

 glands with smaller capillaries, form an extremely rich and 

 delicate plexus of larger vessels (0*006 — 0-01'") on the surface, 



