THE VISCERA. 249 



II. The Organs of Generation in the Female, 



Genitalia muliebria. 

 They are situated, for the most part, within the pelvic cavity. 



483. 1. The ovaries, ovaria s. testes, muliebres (Galen), are 

 two semioval whitish glands, flattened from before to behind, 

 transverse at the entrance of the small pelvis, one of which is 

 situated on either side of the uterus, behind and below the Fallo- 

 pian tube. The convex anterior and posterior surfaces and the 

 superior border are free (enveloped in peritonaeum) ; the straight 

 or concave inferior border, where the vessels and nerves pass in 

 (hilus ovarii), is connected with the broad ligament of the uterus ; 

 the internal extremity by a fibrous cord, Kg. ovarii, with the 

 superior angle of the Uterus ; the external extremity with the 

 fringe of the tuba Fallopise. The surface of the ovaries is not 

 always irregular and uneven. 



In the virgin : Length : eighteen to twenty-three lines ; breadth : 

 nine to twelve lines ; thickness : four and a half to five lines ; 

 weight : eighty to a hundred and ten grains. 



In women of thirty-five to forty years old : Length : twelve to 

 eighteen lines ; breadth : six to seven ; thickness : three to four ; 

 weight: forty grains. 



Position : in the foetus in the regio lumbalis (like the testicles); 

 during pregnancy in the abdominal cavity, also after delivery in 

 the fossae iliacse; and very frequently behind the Uterus. 



Structure. The parenchyma of the ovary is immediately covered by 

 (fibrous) uniting tissue, tunica propria s. albuginea, which receives a serous 

 investment from the peritoneum, so that the fossa of the hilus ovarii only 

 remains free. The parenchyma itself (stroma*) consists of a loose, but yet 

 dense uniting tissue, penetrated by numerous blood-vessels, and containing 

 twelve to fifteen roundish, transparent vesicles, of one half to four lines 

 diarn.; these are, folliculi s. vesiculce (ovula) Graafii, the largest of which lie 

 close to the periphery. In impregnation, a Graafian vesicle bursts after it 

 has filled with blood; it is emptied of its contents, the blood changes colour, 

 and is metamorphosed into the cicatrizing matter, which is corpus luteum, the 

 yellow body. 



48 4. The Graafian vesicle is to be regarded as a cell of the ovary. It 

 consists of a very vascular, dense tunica propria (theca, of Baer) which en- 

 closes a clear fluid, mixed with some fat globules and with elementary 

 granules only, and the ovum. Each granule forms a connected layer of cells 

 (membrana granulosa), which covers the internal surface of the vesicle, and 

 attaches the ovum to its wall, since it surrounds it above and below, like Epi- 

 thelium. 



The egg, ovulum, appears to the unassisted eye as a white punctule, is still 

 covered on its exit from the Graafian vesicle by a remnant of the granular 

 layer (that is, discus proligerus of Baer), which is lost upon the entrance of 

 the egg into the Fallopian tube. It is 0-08 of a line in size, consists of a clear, 

 structureless, firm, and close envelope, cAorion, and fluid contents, the yelk. 



