992 FEMALE ORGANS OF GENERATION. 



bottom of a sort of fissure leading from that fringe which, is attached to 

 the ovary. It is by this orifice that an ovum is received at the time 

 of its liberation from the ovary, and is thence conveyed along the tube 

 to its uterine extremity, which opens into the womb by a very miuute 

 orifice, admitting only a fine bristle, and named ostiwm uterinum. The part 

 of the canal which is near the uterus is also very fine, but it becomes 

 gradually larger towards its abdominal orifice, and there it is again some- 

 what contracted : hence, the term isthmus, given by Henle to the uterine 

 half, and ampulla to the outer half of the Fallopian tube. 



Beneath the external or peritoneal coat the walls of the tube contain, 

 besides areolar tissue, plain muscular fibres like those of the uterus, arranged 

 in an external longitudinal and an internal circular layer. The mucous 

 membrane lining the tubes i* thrown into longitudinal plicso, which are 

 broad and numerous in the wider part of the tube, and in the narrower 

 part are broken up into very numerous arborescent processes : it is con- 

 tinuous, on the one hand, with the lining membrane of the uterus, and at 

 the outer end of the tube with the peritoneum ; presenting an example of 

 the direct continuity of a mucous and serous membrane, and making the 

 peritoneal cavity in the female an exception to the ordinary rule of serous 

 cavities, i.e. of being perfectly closed. The epithelium in the interior of the 

 Fallopian tube is, like that of the uterus, columnar and ciliated ; the inner 

 surface of the fimbrisB is also provided with cilia, and Henle has even 

 detected ciliated epithelium on their outer or serous surface, but it here soon 

 passes into the scaly epithelium of the peritoneal membrane. 



Vessels and nerves of the ovaries and Fallopian tubes. The ovaries are supplied by 

 the ovarian arteries, analogous to the spermatic in the male, which anastomose freely by 

 an internal branch with the termination of the uterine arteries. Sometimes this anasto- 

 motic branch is so large that the ovary seems to be supplied almost entirely by the 

 uterine artery. The ovarian artery always sends numerous branches to the Fallopian 

 tube. The smaller arteries penetrate the ovary along its attached border, pierce the 

 proper coat, and run in flexuous parallel lines through its substance. The veins cor- 

 respond, and the ovarian veins form a plexus near the ovary named the pampiniform 

 plexus. The nerves are derived from the spermatic or ovarian plexus ; and also from 

 one of the uterine nerves, which invariably send an offset to the Fallopian tube. 



The parovarium (Kobelt), or Organ of Rosenmiiller, is a structure which 

 can usually be brought plainly into view by holding against the light the 

 fold of peritoneum between the ovary and Fallopian tube. It con- 

 sists of a group of scattered tubules lying transversely between the Fallo- 

 pian tube and ovary, lined with epithelium, but having no orifice. The 

 tubules converge, but remain separate at their ovarian end, and at the other 

 are more or less distinctly united by a longitudinal tube. The parovarium 

 consists of a few tubules formed in connection with the Wolffian body, which, 

 partaking in the growth of the surrounding textures, have remained per- 

 sistent during life. The duct which unites them is sometimes of consider- 

 able size, and is prolonged for some distance downwards, in the broad liga- 

 ment. Its more developed form in some animals constitutes the duct of 

 Gaertner, afterwards referred to as arising from a persistent condition of the 

 Wolffian duct. 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE URINARY ORGANS. 



The Wolffian Bodies and their Excretory ducts. The development of the genito- 

 urinary organs in reptiles, birds, and mammalia, including man, is preceded by the 

 formation of two temporary glands, named after their discoverer, C. F. Wolff, the 



