418 THE FEMALE EEPEODUCTIVE OKGANS 



The epithelium is of the ciliated columnar type, and consists 

 of a single row of cells. Apparently not all of its cells are pro- 

 vided with cilia, areas of ciliated, alternating with groups of non- 

 ciliated epithelium. The epithelial layer is continuous with the 

 epithelium of the uterine glands ; in the region of the external os 



FIG. 338. FROM THE UTERINE MTJCOSA OF A GIRL OF SIXTEEN YEARS, SHOWING THE 

 GLANDS OF THE BODY OF THE ORGAN. 



o-, lining epithelium. Hematein and eosin. Photo, x 115. 



uteri it is replaced by the stratified squamous epithelium of the 

 vaginal mucosa. Ofttimes, and especially in multiparae, the strati- 

 fied squamous epithelium of the vagina is continued for some 

 little distance within the canal of the cervix uteri ; it never 

 clothes more than the lower one-half to two-thirds of the cervical 

 canal. The current resulting from the vibration of the intra- 

 uterine cilia is directed toward the vagina (Hofmeier,* Mandl f ). 



The tunica propria of the mucosa consists of a peculiar em- 

 bryonal type of connective tissue, similar to that of the oviducts, 

 which contains very few white and no elastic fibres, but which is 

 richly supplied, in fact is literally packed, with cellular elements. 

 These cells are ovoid or fusiform in shape, and many of them are 

 branched; their nuclei, also, are ovoid and somewhat vesicular. 



* Centralbl. f. Gynakol, 1893. \ Ibid., 1898. 



