54 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [anNO 1684. 



although they are continued from the extremity of the vagina to the extremities 

 of the cornua uteri, yet are they not all exactly of the same shape and appear- ■ 

 ance, nor of an equal size, nor running under one and the same plane. For 

 the inferior set or portion of them, terminating not far from the orifice of the 

 urethra, runs directly upwards towards the os uteri. This portion sometimes 

 scarcely admits a probe, at other times it is wide enough to admit the little 

 finger, opening into the vagina above the orifice of the urethra by a large and 

 conspicuous hiatus. Near the os uteri these ducts seem to be obliterated, and 

 nothing but very minute pores, terminating in one continued vessel, are to be 

 found there. This portion (the most difficult to be traced) of these vessels, 

 which takes its rise from an evident duct, but is buried within the fleshy fibres, 

 stretches upwards along the sides of the uterus, until it comes to the cervix, 

 where it emerges and is continued along the surface of the uterus. Of this 

 portion of these vessels the appearances are various, so that they cannot be 

 distinguished without a close and careful examination ; for they lie buried with- 

 in the substance of the uterus, and are often so minute as to be scarcely per- 

 ceptible. Sometimes, indeed, they are collected into numerous and conspicu- 

 ous clusters, at other times the fluid with which they are distended serves to 

 point out their course. — One portion of these ducts emerging from the cervix 

 uteri, is distributed over the body of the uterus and its cornua, till it loses itself 

 in the extremities of the [Fallopian] tubes." — ^The appearances of these vessels 

 (he observes) are greatly modified by their involucrum or investing ligament (ab 

 ambiente involucro seu ligamento) as well as by their internal structure. In 

 some places they are sinuous, in others straight ; some of them have orifices or 

 roundish glandular folliculi, which open in their insides ; others are furnished 

 with a sort of valves or ccecal appendices, resembling that of the colon. Near 

 the orifice of the urethra these vessels become larger, opening by a winding 

 duct into the vagina, in the manner before described. — The superior set or 

 portion of these vessels, which runs along the sides of the os uteri, is invested 

 with a cartilaginous involucrum, so as to be rendered varicous, and to have the 

 appearance of being furnished with globular appendices. This portion, where it 

 emerges from the cervix uteri, is as large as a quill ; afterwards it becomes in- 

 vested with a sort of spiral ligament, so as to exhibit a most elegant appearance. 

 It continues its course until it reaches the cornua uteri, where it is divided into 

 branches, which go to the extreme parts of the womb. — During pregnancy, 

 these vessels, together with the uterus itself, are so much 'elongated and at the 

 same time distended, that in cows they exceed the length of an arm, and are 

 then so turgid with their contained fluid as to be very conspicuous. This fluid 

 is of a diflferent consistence in different portions of these vessels ; in some places 

 it is mucaginous, or half concreted, like pottage ; in other places it resembles 



