546 



influence, especially during pregnancy, upon 

 other parts and organs. The diseases and 

 accidents to which it is liable are more nu- 

 merous, and are attended by greater danger 

 to life than those which affect any other 

 portions of these structures, whilst its several 

 morbid states, as well as its natural condition, 

 may be ascertained during life with a degree 

 of precision which virtually removes the ute- 

 rus from the category of internal parts. 



But it is only in a practical or obstetric 

 point of view that the uterus can be regarded 

 as the most important of the generative 

 organs. Physiologically considered, it is by 

 no means entitled to the foremost place ; for 

 although the presence of the uterus is neces- 

 sary to the completion of the generative act 

 in its regular course, yet reproduction to a 

 certain extent may be accomplished without 

 it. The uterus is necessary to reproduction, 

 first, as affording the only channel by which 

 the seminal fluid can obtain access to the 

 ovum; and next, as constituting, together with 

 the vagina, the only natural passage for the 

 exit of the fully matured ovum, which re- 

 quires this contractile organ to effect its 

 expulsion by that passage : such expulsion 

 not being essential to the generative act be- 

 cause the foetus may be extracted by the Cae- 

 sarean section without necessary loss of life 

 either of the parent or offspring, while other 

 parts the Fallopian tubes for example may, 

 to a certain extent, perform the offices of a 

 uterus in all that relates to the protection 

 and nutrition of the ovum. Moreover, the 

 entire removal of the uterus may have no other 

 effect upon the individual than that of pre- 

 venting impregnation and menstruation by 

 the simple abstraction of the parts necessary 

 thereto. 



On the other hand, the ovary, though con- 

 stituting only a small portion of the repro- 

 ductive organs, is nevertheless that part to 

 which all the rest are subservient. It is the 

 organ which furnishes the generative element 

 essential to the reproductive act. It is that 

 part which, in a great measure, regulates the 

 growth of the body, and determines the dis- 

 tinctive characters of the sex. It is the 

 organ upon the presence of which depends the 

 sexual passion and the process of menstru- 

 ation ; whose congenital deficiency is indicated 

 by the absence externally of all signs of a 

 secondary sexual character ; whose artificial 

 removal entirely unsexes the individual, and 

 the decline of whose functional activity, as 

 age advances, is the cause of the generative 

 faculty being lost in the female long before 

 the ordinary term of life has expired, and at 



Fig. 368. 



Uterus and appendages of an adult virgin, posterior 



aspect. (Ad Nat.) 



a, uterus ; bb, ovary ; cc, Fallopian tube or 

 oviduct; dd, fimbriated extremity or infundibulum 

 of the tube ; ee, terminal bulb of the duct of Miiller ; 

 /'/, portion of broad ligament and blood-vessels ; 

 g, vaginal portion of cervix uteri; /<, os uteri ex- 

 ternum; i, anterior and I, posterior wall of vagina; 

 in, ligamentum bvarii ; n, tubo-ovarian ligament. 



UTERUS AND ITS APPENDAGES. 



Fig. 368. 



