636 



UTERUS AND ITS APPENDAGES. 



ing. The appearance of minute perforations 

 is then lost, and a tomentose or apparently 

 villous condition of the surface occasioned 

 by the loosening out and partial detach- 

 ment of the capillaries which freely ramify 

 within this membrane is observed, 

 \ The lining membrane of the uterus differs 

 from mucous membranes in general in hav- 

 ing no sub-mucous tissue, jso that it can- 

 not, like that ot the intestines, be made to 

 glide upon the sublying tissues, nor be dis- 

 sected off from them so as to be displayed in 

 a distinct layer. When very thin sections 

 from spirit preparations are examined by 

 transmitted light with a common lens, or 

 with a low power of the microscope, the mu- 

 cous is distinguishable from the muscular coat 

 chiefly by its greater opacity and peculiar 

 greyish colour, as well as by the numerous 

 tortuous canals which permeate its substance, 

 running chiefly in a direction perpendicular 

 to the inner surface of the membrane, and 

 strongly resembling in their general contour 

 the cerebral convolutions 



Under the application of dilute acetic acid 

 this comparative opacity and grey hue imme- 

 diately disappear, and the tortuous canals 

 alone serve to mark the boundary between 

 the two coats. When an amplifying power 

 sufficient to discriminate the component tis- 

 sues is employed, the distinction between the 

 two coats becomes still less apparent, because 

 their constituent elements are then seen to 

 pass from the one to the other by almost im- 

 perceptible gradations, the difference between 

 them being then shown to be morphological 

 rather than structural, at least, at the points 

 of their confluence. 



The mucous membrane lining the uterine 

 cavity is composed of the following elements, 

 besides the utricular glands, capillary vessels, 

 and epithelium, viz., free elementary cor- 

 puscles or nuclei, contractile fibre-cells, and 

 amorphous connective tissue. 



1. Free elementary corpuscles or nuclei. 

 These are in all respects precisely similar to 

 the elementary corpuscles already described 

 as constituting apparently the embryonic state 

 of the contractile fibre- cells in the muscular 

 coat. They form in conjunction with the 

 amorphous mutter the principal portion of 

 the uterine lining membrane towards its inner 

 surface. Here they are arranged in nearly 

 close apposition, being imbedded in an amor- 

 phous blastema, yet not so closely as to cause 

 any mutual disturbance of their round or 

 oval forms. 



2. Fusiform fibres or contractile fibre-cells. 

 In the account which has been already- 

 given of the muscular coat, the contractile 

 fibres are described as existing in all the coats 

 of the uterus. In the mucous membrane they 

 are very abundant, especially towards the 

 outer surface, or that part in which the mus- 

 cular and mucous coats become conjoined, 

 and where the transition from the one to the 

 Other is almost imperceptible, and is chiefly 

 observable on account of the difference in the 

 arrangement of the constituent tissues of each. 



The fusiform fibres of the mucous membrane 

 are gathered into loose bundles, united by 

 amorphous tissue and intermixed with the 

 elementary corpuscles from which they are 

 developed. These bundles, the form of which 

 is sometimes like the head of an arrow, are 

 usually found between the utricular glands, 

 pointing in a direction perpendicular to the 

 uterine cavity. 



The individual fibres have here a softer, 

 paler, and more fleshy aspect than in any 

 other portion of the uterine coats ; they are 

 apparently the youngest and most newly 

 formed of the muscular fibres composing the 

 uterus. 



3. Amorphous connective tissue constitutes 

 the chief bond of union between the several 

 elements of the uterine mucous coat, and 

 enters largely into the composition of the 

 utricular glands. It presents no special cha- 

 racter requiring a more particular description 

 than has been already given of it in the ac- 

 count of the muscular coat. 



Utricular glands or follicles. These struc- 

 tures, which were first more particularly- 

 described by E. H. Weber and Professor 

 Sharpey, constitute the most remarkable cha- 

 racteristic of the uterine mucous membrane. 



By Reichert *, who has also investigated 

 the subject, they were found present in every 

 mammal which he had examined. The ute- 

 rine glands or follicles consist of involutions 

 or depressions of the mucous membrane, which 

 are exceedingly numerous, and lie tolerably 

 close together. They generally present the 

 form of canals taking their course from the 

 muscular walls of the uterus, through the sub- 

 stance of trie parenchyma of the mucous 

 membrane towards its free surface, where they 

 terminate each in a separate orifice. 



In Ruminantia and Pachydermata they are 

 large, and take a serpentine direction, so that 

 they may be easily mistaken for vessels. By 

 Burckhardt )-, indeed, who has described them 

 in the cow. they were termed vasa spiralia. 

 Their spiral course is more obvious in the 

 rodentia and carnivora. In the rabbit they 

 are short and wide. The orifices by which the 

 utricular glands terminate upon the surface 

 of the mucous membrane are in some ani- 

 mals large enough to be distinguished by the 

 naked eye, as, for example, in ruminants, and 

 occasionally in man ; but more frequently these 

 require the aid of a lens for their detection. 



In the dog, two sorts of glands are de- 

 scribed by Professor Sharpey |, simple and 

 compound. The simple glands, which are 

 the more numerous, are merely very short 

 unbranched tubes closed at one end ; the 

 compound glands have a long duct dividing 



* The composition of the mucous membrane of 

 the uterus has been carefully investigated by Robin 

 and Reichert; vide Robin, " Memoire pour servir 

 a 1'Histoire Anat. et Path, de la Memb. Muqueuse 

 Ute'rine ; Archiv. Gen. de IVIed. iv. serie, torn, 

 xvii. ; Reichert, Ueber die Bildung der hinfalligen 

 Haute; Muller's Archiv fiir Anat. Phys. 184S. 



t Observ. anat de Uteri Vaccini Fabrica. 



j Muller's Physiology, by Baly, 1837, p. 1574. 



