1026 



THE FEMALE ORGANS OF GENERATION. 



enclosing the common urino-sexual opening. Each labium has two surfaces, an 

 outer, which is pigmented and covered with strong, crisp hairs ; and an inner, which 

 is smooth and is beset with large sebaceous follicles and is continuous with the 

 genito-urinary mucous tract ; between the two there is a considerable quantity of 

 areolar tissue, fat, and a tissue resembling the dartos of the scrotum, besides vessels, 

 nerves, and glands. The labia are thicker in front, where they form by their 

 meeting the anterior commissure. Posteriorly they are not really joined, but appear 

 to become lost in the neighboring integument, terminating close to, and nearly 

 parallel with, each other. Together with the connecting skin between them, they 

 form the posterior commissure or posterior boundary of the vulval orifice. The 



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FIG. 570; Vertical median section of the female pelvis. 



interval between the posterior commissure and the anus, about an inch to an inch 

 and a quarter in length, constitutes the perinaeum. The fourchette is the anterior 

 edge of the perineum, and between it and the hymen is a depression, the fossa 

 navicularis. The labia correspond to the scrotum in the male. 



The Labia Minora, or Nymphae, are two small cutaneous folds, situated within the 

 labia majora, and extending from the clitoris obliquely downward, outward, and back- 

 ward for about an inch and a half on each side of the orifice of the vagina, between 

 which and the labia majora they are lost- Anteriorly, the two labia minora meet 

 and form thefrcenum of the clitoris. The prepuce of the clitoris, passing backward 

 on each side, is inserted, as it were, into the labium minora, but is not actually a 

 part of them. The nymphse are really modified skin. Their internal surfaces have 

 numerous sebaceous follicles. 



The Clitoris is an erectile structure analogous to the corpora cavernosa 01 the 

 penis. It is situated beneath the anterior commissure, partially hidden between the 

 anterior extremities of the labia minora. It is connected to the rami of the os pubie 



