620 . Diseases of the Genital Organs 



The intensity of the disease at the vaginal end of the cer- 

 vix does not furnish a reliable criterion regarding the state 

 of the cervix in its more anterior portions. Any or all of 

 the annular mucous folds may be involved, resulting in the 

 elongation of the free, projecting portion, with sclerosis of 

 the base of the fold. The swollen free margin projecting to- 

 ward the vagina fills the canal and interferes with the pas- 

 sage of the catheter or other instrument, partly by the direct 

 filling of the canal, but chiefly by the elongated mucous folds 

 projecting vaginalward, behind which the catheter becomes 

 engaged. The sclerosis of the base of the annular folds is 

 one of the commonest and most striking lesions in cervicitis. 

 When marked, as illustrated in Fig. 189, the sclerotic base 

 pushes the canal out of its course and forces the opposite 

 wall of the cervix to yield. The sclerosis thus causes the 

 cervical canal to bend with varying degrees of abruptness, 

 dorsalward or ventralward, to the right or to the left, ac- 

 cording to the location and extent of the sclerosis. Some- 

 times the fourth or last annular fold at the uterine end be- 

 comes sclerotic, and, pushing in the direction of least re- 

 sistance, forms a cone projecting into the uterine cavity, 

 which, acting as a collapsing valve and imprisoning men- 

 strual debris, causes uterine distension. Little is known of 

 the histo-pathologic changes in the cervix. The scanty 

 studies show that generally there is desquamation of the 

 external epithelial strata with desquamation of the epithe- 

 lial lining of the mucus, or, as they might be termed in preg- 

 nancy, the seal-secreting glands. The desquamation of the 

 general cervical epithelium tends constantly toward adhe- 

 sions between the contiguous denuded surfaces, but the reg- 

 ular physiologic discharge of uterine secretions, especially 

 at the estrual period, counteracts, at least as a rule, complete 

 cervical atresia. I have not observed, clinically or in the 

 abattoir, a complete obliteration of the cervical canal as a 

 direct result of cervicitis. I have observed clinically three 

 or four cases, always in heifers in first pregnancy, of adhe- 

 sions between contiguous denuded surfaces of the first an- 

 nular ring, which so narrowed the cervical canal as to ren- 



