FALLOPIAN TUBE OR OVIDUCT (ABNORMAL ANATOMY). 



organs are perfectly formed it is exceedingly 

 rare to find a deficiency of the oviduct. 



The oviduct may be deficient either upon 

 one or both sides. Heusinger * has recorded 

 an example of deficiency of the ovary and 

 Fallopian tube of one side. 



Chaussierf met with a remarkable ex- 

 ample of a woman who, notwithstanding the 

 absence of one ovary and tube, and even of one 

 side of the uterus, bore ten living children ; 

 and whose death shortly after her last con- 

 finement afforded him the opportunity of 

 ascertaining this peculiar condition of the 

 parts. 



After the observations which have been 

 made regarding the function of the Fallopian 

 tube, it ^is hardly necessary to observe here 

 that deficiency of both tubes will be neces- 

 sarily productive of permanent sterility ; al- 

 though absence of the tube of one side, as in 

 the case of Chaussier, just quoted, need not 

 entail any such consequence. 



Unusual shortness of the tube and the 

 absence of the fimbria? have been also ac- 

 counted as causes of sterility ; but the former, 

 if associated with a very short ligamentum 

 ovarii, would have no such effect, and could 

 be only accounted a relative deformity when 

 the ovary is placed at an unusual distance 

 from the uterus, so as to be beyond the grasp 

 of the infundibulum ; while the latter pecu- 

 liarity, as already shown, may be merely the 

 result of age. 



Peculiarities of Construction. Several Pa- 

 vilions on the same Tube. M. Richard, to 

 whose researches regarding the Fallopian 

 tube reference has been already made, has 

 pointed out a previously unobserved condition 

 of this part. In examining the appendages 



615 



of the uterus in thirty women, he met with 

 no less than five examples of this singular 

 formation, which he thus describes : 



" At a distance varying from several millime- 

 tres to 2 or 3 centimetres behind the normal 

 pavilion, are observed upon the course of the 

 tube one or more accessory pavilions, formed 

 like that which terminates the oviduct, of a 

 mucous membrane divided into fimbria?. 

 When the fringes of this pavilion are floated 

 under water, they are observed to be pierced 

 by an aperture leading into the canal of the 

 tube ; and a probe introduced into this orifice 

 may be made to escape either by the ostium 

 abdominale, or by the ostium uterinum, ac- 

 cording to the direction in which it is passed. 

 Thus, then, the canal of the tube can, in 

 certain cases, open into the cavity of the 

 peritoneum by several distinct orifices." 



The first of M. Richard's cases occurred 

 in an adult, and is represented in fig. 408. 



" There is a normal pavilion of somewhat 

 irregular form, and below it, at several milli- 

 metres distance, a small opening, surrounded 

 by two small fringes, covered on their inner sur- 

 face by mucous membrane ; while the serous 

 membrane terminates abruptly on their outer 

 surface as in the true pavilion. A probe 

 introduced escapes by one or other orifice 

 indiscriminately." 



The second example (fig. 418.) occurred 

 in a foetus at term. The tube of the left side 

 terminates in a single pavilion, but that of 

 the right, besides its terminal pavilion, ex- 

 hibits also two little secondary pavilions, com- 

 municating each by a special orifice with the 

 canal of the tube. 



But the most interesting example is that 

 shown \njig. 419. from a woman who aborted 



Fig. 419. 



l - 



Extremity of Fallopian tube (human) having two pavilions. (After Richard.) 



a a, fimbriae of the terminal or normal pavilion, exhibiting an unusual richness of folds ; b b, accessory 

 pavilion in the side of the tube, having two distinct orifices separated by a valvular fold; cc, a bristle 

 introduced at the terminal pavilion escapes by one of these lateral orifices, but cannot be made to pass 

 out by the other, or to enter the uterus on account of the valve ; dd, a second bristle introduced from the 

 lower" end of the tube escapes by the other orifice of the accessory pavilion, but cannot be made to pene- 

 trate as far as the terminal infundibulum. 



* Heusinger's Zeitschrift fur die organische Phy- at the sixth month. The terminal pavilion, 

 sick, II. 2. represented here of the natural size, exhibits 



Tv 1 Bl Se h * DaS Geschlechtsleben des ^eibes, B - a richness of fringes and folds rarely seen. 



i. V p. o^t/ 



R R 4 



