302 GENERATIVE SYSTEM. 



where ; a circumstance partly owing to a coating of strong mus- 

 cular fibres, and partly to two cellular or cavernous membranous 

 bodies, one upon either side, which have some resemblance in 

 structure to the interior of the glans penis. They are inclosed 

 in membranous coverings, enveloped in adipose substance, and 

 shew signs internally of having, in life, contained blood. I know 

 of no appellation in use for these bodies : M. Girard calls them 

 " bulbes vaginals." I see no impropriety in naming them the 

 corpora cavernosa vagincc. 



Structure. — The vagina in composition is partly muscular and 

 partly membranous. The orifice of it is bound by the strong, 

 red, circular, fleshy band forming the sphincter vaginae ; and the 

 adjoining part of the canal is also encircled by some considerable 

 fleshy fasciculi : but the part most compacted, and most thickly 

 and regularly coated with muscular fibres, is that which is con- 

 tracted — which receives the urine as it flows from the meatus 

 urinarius; though the fasciculi hereabouts are not so red, nor so 

 strong, as those blended with the sphincter. Farther forward 

 than this, the vagina is substantially composed of membrane. 

 There are, indeed, to be found colourless fibres taking various di- 

 rections scattered over its surface ; but they present no very un- 

 equivocal marks of muscularity, though they are commonly con- 

 sidered to be of that nature : fibres apparently similar to these 

 are likewise discoverable underneath the red fasciculi posteriorly; 

 but there they take a logitudinal course. 



The membrane of the vagina, the part of which it is integrally 

 constituted, is one of the mucous class, and one that possesses 

 considerable density, extensibility, and resistance. Its exterior 

 surface is rough and flocculent, from the adhesion of muscle and 

 other parts. Its interior is smooth and polished, humid from se- 

 cretion, and has a very pale pinkish cast ; unless the mare be 

 under the influence of the venereal oestrum, and then its redness 

 is considerably heightened and its secretion abundantly aug- 

 mented. In the ordinary state this membrane is thrown into 

 folds, larger in breeding mares than in others, technically called 

 ruga, which continue without much regularity from its outlet to 

 its uterine end. Follicles furnishing the mucous secretion are 

 scattered about underneath the membrane ; and their orifices are 

 generally most conspicuous within the more capacious part of the 

 canal. 



MEATUS URINARIUS.— Considerably in advance of the cli~ 

 toris, altogether about four inches in the collapsed state from the 

 entrance of the vulva, is an opening leading from the lower part of 

 the vaginal canal, large enough to admit with ease any one of the 

 fingers: this is the orifice oj' the meatus urinarius, and it is a 



