THE SEXUAL ORGANS. 655 



56, 4). The Idbia majora, in the structure of their coverings, corres- 

 pond partly with the mucous membrane, in part approach the cutis, and 

 contain, in the interior, common adipose tissue. 



The external genital organs are furnished with various smaller and 

 larger glands. Sebaceous glands, mostly of a rosette-form and consi- 

 derable size (J-l line), occur in the labia majora, on the external and 

 internal aspects, in connection with larger and smaller hair-follicles; 

 moreover, in larger quantity in the labia minora, for the most part 

 without hairs and rather smaller (from ^ to J a line) ; occasionally, 

 also, around the orifice of the urethra, and laterally at the entrance of 

 the vagina. Common racemose mucous glands, J-l J lines in size, with 

 scarcely visible or tolerably wide openings, and having excretory ducts, 

 either short, or as much as 6 lines long, exist in very various number 

 around the orifice of the urethra, in the vestibule, and in the lateral 

 portions of the entrance of the vagina. Lastly, the two " glands of 

 Bartholini," corresponding to Cowper's glands in the male, are situated 

 at the inferior extremity of the bulbi vestibuli; they are common race- 

 mose mucous glands, 6 lines in size, with pyriform gland-vesicles lined 

 with a tessellated epithelium, 0'02-0'05 of a line in diameter, and lodged 

 in a compact nucleated connective tissue without muscular fibres. The 

 excretory ducts of these glands, 7-8 lines long, and J a line wide, have, 

 external to their mucous membrane, invested with a cylinder epithelium 

 O'Ol of a line thick, a delicate longitudinal layer of smooth muscles, and 

 always contain a viscous, amorphous, clear, yellowish mucus. 



The clitoris, with its two corpora cavernosa and glans attached to the 

 bulbi vestibuli, the divided corpus cavernosum urethrce of the female, 

 present, on a small scale, precisely the same conditions as the corre- 

 sponding parts and corpora cavernosa of the male ; and in them the 

 muscular elements are even more readily isolated than in man. 



The bloodvessels of the vagina and of the external genital organs, 

 present, upon the whole, nothing much worthy of remark. In the 

 papilla? of the various situations where they occur, we find, for the 

 most part, simple vascular loops ; it is only when the papillae are larger 

 or compound, such as abound around the orifice of the urethra, that 

 more complex loops occur. The corpora cavernosa have the same struc- 

 ture as in man ; and, according to Valentin, helicine arteries also ap- 

 pear to exist in the clitoris. The venous plexuses in the walls of the 

 vagina, above the bulbi vestibuli, are extremely rich ; but by no means, 

 as Kobelt assumes, represent true corpora cavernosa. The lymphatics 

 of the external genital organs, and of the vagina, are numerous, and 

 communicate partly with the inguinal glands, partly with the pelvic 

 plexus. The nerves, lastly, are derived in part from the sympathetic, 

 in part from the pudendal plexus, and are extremely numerous, espe- 

 cially in the clitoris, but are also found without difficulty in the mucous 



