I 



THE ANATOMY OF THE OX. 73 



the horse, and it presents at its opening a number of long stiflf 

 hairs, the prepuce being prolonged as an elastic sheath. It is 

 furnished with four thin muscles, two anterior and two posterior. 

 The anterior are protractors, and restore the prepuce to its 

 normal position. The posterior are retractors, and draw the 

 sheath backwards during the erection of the penis. During 

 erection the curves in the penis are not shown, but when it is 

 quiescent and drawn into the sheath by the retractor muscles, 

 the curvatures are re-formed. The urethra is the mucous canal 

 inside the corpus spongiosum. 



Female Organs. — The ovaries are rather small. The cornua 

 of the uterus are slightly twisted, and the ligaments are large. 

 The fundus is short and narrow. The mucous membrane of 

 the uterus presents a number of rounded vascular processes, 

 which exhibit eminences and depressions. These processes 

 are the maternal cotyledons. During gestation there may be 

 seen in each of the lateral walls of the vagina a mucous canal 

 which opens into the vulva on either side of the meatus urinarius. 

 These are the canals of Gartner. They are not present in the 

 smaller ruminants. 



The labia of the vulva are thick, and its inferior commissure 

 is narrow and furnished with a few hairs. Inside the vulva are 

 the vulvo-vaginal glands, and there is a small blind cavity, or 

 diverticulum in the wall of the urethra, covered by a fold of 

 mucous membrane. 



The udder is composed of two symmetrical halves mesially 

 connected together. Each half is again divided into two 

 distinct glands, each provided with its own teat, and hence 

 the udder is composed of four separate mammae. Behind these 

 four teats there may be two small rudimentary teats. In the 

 centre of each quarter, just at the base of the teat, is a large 

 galactopherous sinus, the general receptacle of the milk. From 

 this sinus, which is sometimes large enough to contain a quart, 

 one excretory canal proceeds down the centre of the teat. 



With regard to the uterus, the horns are very long and 

 large, and it may be remarked that length of the cornua indi- 

 cates lowness of development. In its original condition the 

 uterus was doubtless bifid. The cornua are larger in the goat 

 and sheep than in bovidse and oervidse. The chorion usually 

 has villi, and the cotyledons are simply patches of villi. Some 



