IXTHllXAL onHAXS OF UKXEJlATKiX. 47 



young they bear, while the body is diminished in length. In the uni- 

 parous animal the fa'tus is usually developed in the body of the uterus, 

 and its posterior extremities only are sometimes engaged in one of the 

 cornua ; but in the nuiltiparous females the cornua resemble the intes- 

 tines, and the young are developed in them, the body of the uterus 

 seldom containing any. In the Rabbit, indeed, .there is no corpus uteri, 

 the cornua opening independently and directly into the vagina. 



After parturition tlie uterus gradually diminishes in size, and some of 

 its supplementary structures disappear ; but it never resumes its previous 

 volume. 



The lujmncnts of the uterus suspend it loosely, yet securely in the 

 abdominal cavity ; and while allowing it a certain range of movement, 

 permit its full development during gestation. At this period they become 

 developed in a peculiar manner, and, as we have seen, between their 

 lamina; appears a layer of muscular fibres ; in the Cow these fibres are 

 arranged in fasciculi, one of which, larger than the others, extends from 

 the ovary to the cervix uteri. These ligaments would also appear to 

 stretch considerably in version or inversion of the uterus in Herbi- 

 vorous animals ; even in the Carnivora they accompany the uterus when 

 hernia takes place ; and in the torsions of this organ which sometimes 

 occur in Ruminants — when its upper face becomes the lower, or even 

 when it has made a complete turn upon itself — they encircle and strangle 

 the uterus at the cervix. 



SKCTIOX III.- FALLOPIAN TUBES, OR OVIDUCTS. 



The F.\LLOi'i.\N TUKES, or oviDfCTs, are two small, cylindrical, 

 tlexuous canals, about ten inches long, white in appearance, one of which 

 is lodged in each broad ligament, between its serous layers, and near its 

 anterior border. Each tube connnences at the extremity of the uterine 

 horn, at a small hard tubercle in its cul-de-sac {ostium uterinum). This 

 tubercle is its opening into the cornu, and from this it proceeds, more 

 or less tortuously, and increasing slightly in diameter, towards one of 

 the ovaries, upon which it terminates by a free, widened extremity 

 {ostiu7n ubdominale) in the ^x/rj7/o;i of the tube. The calibre of this 

 canal is small, and scarcely admits a thin straw at its middle portion, 

 and it is still smaller towards the uterine extremity ; as it approaches 

 the ovary, however, it increases in width until it ends in tlie pavilion. 

 The uterine extremity of the canal opens through the small liard tubercle 

 just referred to as existing at the cul-de-sac of the cornu. The ovarian 

 extremity oflfers, in all the mammalia, a peculiar disposition. It opens 

 into the peritoneal cavity of the abdomen (the only instance of a serous 

 cavity communicating with the exterior), near the ovarian fissure, in 

 the middle of the pavilion, which is also named the fimhrite tuharum, or 

 morsus diaboli, from its fringed or dentated border. This pavilion is 

 fixed to the external side of the ovary, and its inner surface is marked 

 by numerous narrow, close-set, minutely plicated lamintc, while its cir- 

 cumference is irregularly disposed into a number of unequal, fringe-like 

 prolongations (timbrice) which hang into the abdominal cavity. This 

 arrangement is interesting, from the fact that it gives us a unique ex- 

 ample of a breach of continuity between a gland (the ovary) and its 

 excretory canal (the tube). 



Each tube is composed of three tunics : an external or serous, formed 

 by the broad ligament; a middle or muscular, coi^stituted by longitu- 

 dinal and circular non-striated fibres, continued from those of the 



