44 Diseases of the Genital Organs 



sinus constitutes the inferior terminal wall of the ureter 

 causing it to act essentially as a valve, rendering cathe- 

 terization difficult. 



Bartholin's glands, (See Figs. 18, 21) like Gartner's 

 ducts, are vestigial structures presumed to represent the 

 bulbo-urethral, or Cowper's glands, of the male. In the 

 cow they consist of small, glandular structures located be- 

 hind the vulvo-vaginal or hymeneal border, about midway 

 from floor to roof of the copulatory canal, backward, up- 

 ward and outward from the meatus urinarius. Their in- 

 terest lies largely in the fact that, like Gartner's ducts, their 

 mouths become occluded as a result of infection causing, 

 in the cow especially, retention cysts in the vaginal walls. 



The clitoris is composed chiefly of erectile tissue like that 

 of the corpus cavernosum of the penis. The clitoris of the 

 bitch, like the penis of the dog, contains a small bone. The 

 functions of the clitoris are not important, although it is 

 alleged to exert an influence upon sexual excitement. In 

 observations upon a large number of sows from which 

 the clitoris had been removed by an empiric, the operation 

 had no influence upon estrum or fecundation and all bred 

 normally. 



C. The Physiology of the Genitalia 



The specific function of the generative organs is the pro- 

 creation of the species, including conception, the intra- 

 uterine nutrition and development of the fetus, and its ex- 

 pulsion after a certain degree of development. As the two 

 sexes in mammalia are wholly distinct, before conception 

 can take place a conjunction of the male and female — 

 coition, or copulation — must occur. In each individual 

 there are more or less apparent vestiges of each part of the 

 genital apparatus of the opposite sex, but these naturally 

 become arrested in their development in the embryonic 

 stage and remain wholly functionless. 



Before reproduction becomes possible, the breeding ani- 

 mal must have reached the period of puberty, or sexual 

 maturity, which is marked by the advent of sexual desire. 

 When this period has been reached, ova mature in the ovary 



