FEMALE ORGANS OF GENERATION. 



From the gradual effects of more advanced age alone, independent of impreg- 

 nation, the uterus shrinks, and becomes paler in colour, and harder in texture ; its 

 triangular form is lost ; the body and neck become less distinguishable from each 

 other ; the orifices also become less characteristic. 



For further details with regard to uterine changes, the reader is referred to Farre 

 on " Uterus and its Appendages " in Cyclop, of Anat. and Phys. 



THE OVARIES AND FALLOPIAN TUBES. 



The ovaries, the parts corresponding to the testicles of the male (ovaria, 

 testes muliebres), are two somewhat flattened oval bodies, which are placed 

 one on each side, nearly horizontally, at the back of the broad ligament of 

 the uterus, and are enveloped by its posterior membranous layer. The 

 ovaries are largest in the virgin state ; their weight is from three to five 

 scruples, and they usually measure about one inch and a half in length, 

 three-quarters of an inch in width, and nearly half an inch in thickness ; 

 but their size is rather variable. Each ovary is free on its two sides, and 

 also along its posterior border, which has a convex outline ; but it is 

 attached by its anterior border, which is straighter than the other, and along 

 the line of its attachment exhibits a deep hilus by which the vessels and 

 nerves enter. Its inner end is generally narrow, and is attached to the 

 dense cord already described as the ligament of the ovary, which connects 

 it with the uterus. Its outer extremity is rcore obtuse and rounded, and 

 has attached to it one of the fimbrira of the Fallopian tube. 



Structure. The colour of the ovaries is whitish, and their surface is 

 either smooth, or more commonly irregular, and often marked with pits 

 or clefts resembling scars. Beneath the peritoneal coat, which covers it 

 everywhere except along its attached border, the ovary is enclosed in a 

 proper fibrous coat (tunica albuginea), of a whitish aspect and of consider- 

 able thickness, which adheres firmly to the tissue beneath, being in struc- 

 tural continuity with it. When the deeper ovarian substance is divided, it 

 is seen to consist of a firm reddish- white vascular structure called the 



Fig. G87. Fig. 687. VIEW OF A SEC- 



TION OF THK PREPARED 



OVARY OF THE CAT (from 

 Sehron). f 



1, outer covering and 

 free border of the ovary ; 

 1', attached border ; 2, the 

 ovarian stroraa, present- 

 ing a fibrous and vascular 

 structure ; 3, granular sub- 

 stance lying external to the 

 fibrous stroma; 4, blood- 

 vessels ; 5, ovigerms in 

 their earliest stages occupy- 

 ing a 'part of the granular 

 layer near the surface ; 6, 

 ovigerms which have begun 

 to enlarge and to pass more 

 deeply into the ovary ; 7, 

 ovigerms round which the 



Graafian follicle and tunica granulosa are now formed, and which hare passed somewhat 

 deeper into the ovary and are surrounded by the fibrous stroma ; 8, more advanced 

 Graafian follicle with the ovum imbedded in the layer of cells constituting the proligerous 

 disc ; 9, the most advanced follicle containing the ovum, &c. : 9', a follicle from which the 

 ovum has accidentally escaped ; 10, corpus luteurn presenting radiated columns of cellular 

 structure. 



