THE MULLERIAN DUCTS 



193 



ligament (paroophoron). The greater part of the duct disappears, but 

 ints of it are occasionally to be seen in sections across the body or cervix 



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glomerulus 



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IPNtSPSi 



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Wolffian duct Miillerian duct 



genital ridge 



IG. 244. TRANSVERSE SECTION OF THE HEAD-END OF THE WOLFFIAN BODY OF A HUMAN EMBRYO AT 

 THE END OF THE FIFTH OR BEGINNING OF THE SIXTH WEEK, SHOWING THE PERITONEAL OPENING 

 OF THE MULLERIAN DUCT. (T. H. Bryce.) 



)f the uterus, or even lying in the vaginal wall. It persists as the duct of Gartner 

 in some mammals e.g. the pig. 



The Miillerian duct arises on the lateral aspect of the Wolffian body, and 

 near its anterior end, as a thickening of the coelomic epithelium. This soon shows 

 a longitudinal depression, which, deepening 

 at its posterior end, becomes converted into 

 a funnel-shaped depression. From the 

 caudal end of this the duct grows backwards 

 in close relation to the Wolffian duct. In 

 embryos about the middle of the second 

 month the two ducts lie in a free fold 

 projecting from the outer side of the 

 Wolffian body, the Miillerian duct being 

 to the outer side (fig. 234). Behind the 

 Wolffian body this fold, merging with the 

 Wolffian mesentery, passes on to the lateral 

 wall of the contracted part of the coelomic 

 cavity which will form the pelvis (fig. 246). 

 Here the folds from opposite sides meet in 

 the middle line; the four ducts are thus 

 brought close together, and are imbedded 



in a mass of tissue called the genital cord (figs. 245, 247). The Miillerian ducts, 



as they pass into the genital cord, cross over the Wolffian ducts, and come to lie 



close together between them. Within the cord the epithelial tubes fuse, but behind, 



VOL. i. o 



bladder jM 



ureter ._- 



urethra 



-- Wolffian duct 



FIG. 245. UROGENITAL SINUS, BLADDER, 

 AND GENITAL DUCTS OF A FEMALE HUMAN 

 EMBRYO OF 29 MM. (After Keibel.) 



