662 DEVELOPMENT OF THE KIDNEYS, ETC. 



tube; while that point which is inside the same point, becomes con- 

 verted into the uterus. The upper portion of the cord itself becomes 

 the liyament of the ovary ; its lower portion, the round ligament of 

 the uterus. 



As the ovaries continue their descent, they pass below and be- 

 hind the Fallopian tubes, which necessarily perform at the same 

 time a movement of rotation, from before backward and from 

 above downward ; the whole, together with the ligaments of the 

 ovaries and the round ligaments, being enveloped in double folds 

 of peritoneum, which enlarge with the growth of the parts them- 

 selves, and constitute finally the broad ligaments of the uterus. 



It will be seen from what has been said above, that the situation 

 occupied by the Wolffian bodies in the female is always the space 

 between the ovaries and the Fallopian tubes; for the Wolffian 

 bodies accompany the ovaries in their descent, just as, in the male, 

 they accompany the testicles. As these bodies now become grad- 

 ually atrophied, their glandular structure disappears altogether; 

 but their bloodvessels, in many instances, remain as a convoluted 

 vascular plexus, occupying the situation above mentioned. The 

 Wolman bodies may therefore be said, in these instances, to un- 

 dergo a kind of vascular degeneration. This peculiar degeneration 

 is quite evident in the Wolffian bodies of the foetal pig, some time 

 before the organs have entirely lost their original form. In the 

 cow, a collection of convoluted bloodvessels may be seen, even in 

 the adult condition, near the edge of the ovary, and between the 

 two folds of peritoneum forming the broad ligament. These are 

 undoubtedly vestiges of the Wolffian bodies, which have undergone 

 the vascular degeneration above described. 



While the above changes are taking place in the adjacent organs, 

 the two lateral halves of the uterus fuse with each other more and 

 more upon the median line, and become covered with an exces- 

 sively developed layer of muscular fibres. In the lower animals, 

 the uterus remains divided at its upper portion, running out into 

 two long conical tubes or cornua (Fig. 182), presenting the form 

 known as the uterus bicornis. In the human subject, however, the 

 fusion of the two lateral halves of the organ is nearly complete ; 

 so that the uterus presents externally a rounded, but somewhat 

 flattened and triangular figure (Fig. 183), with the ligaments of the 

 ovary and the round ligaments passing off from its superior angles. 

 But, internally, the cavity of the organ still presents a strongly 

 marked triangular form, the vestige of its original division. 



