404 PRACTICAL ANATOMY. 



It is bound down by the labia minora, and when erected 

 simply advances toward the vaginal orifice. Below 

 the clitoris is a triangular space called the vestibule, 

 at the lower part of which, about three-fourths of an 

 inch below the clitoris, is the meatus urinarius. It 

 presents, as a rule, a prominent border. Below the 

 meatus is the vaginal orifice, which is partially closed in 

 the virgin by a thin, membranous fold called the hymen. 

 This structure is commonly a semilunar fold stretched 

 across the opening posteriorly, but it may be a diaphragm 

 with a central opening or a number of apertures, circular, 

 elliptical, or linear. It may be rudimentary or immensely 

 thickened and fibrous, and its absence or destruction 

 is never to be taken as a test of the chastity of the indi- 

 vidual. After its rupture, small, nodular elevations 

 surround the vaginal orifice called the myrtiform car- 

 uncles. The glands of Bartholine are situated at the sides 

 of the vagina near its orifice. They are about the size 

 of a pea and open by long ducts anterior to the vagina, 

 close to the meatus. Below the mucous membrane of 

 the vestibule is a quantity of erectile tissue arranged in 

 the form of two bulbs connected by an intermediate por- 

 tion. The pelvic or internal genito-urinary organs are 

 the bladder, urethra, vagina, uterus, Fallopian tubes, ova- 

 ries, and associate parts. 



THE URETHRA. 



The urethra is a membranous canal about one and a 

 half inches in length. It extends from the neck of the 

 bladder to the meatus. It runs in the anterior wall of 

 the vagina, is about .one-quarter of an inch in diameter, 

 but highly distensible, and has three coats, muscular, 

 'erectile, and mucous. The erectile coat is analogous to 



7 O 



the corpus spongiosum of the male. 



