THE GENERATIVE ORGANS. 209 



THE VAGINA. 



Ill the walls of the vagina we recognize three lay- 

 ers : an outer fibrous layer, a middle muscular layer > 

 and a lining mucous membrane. 



The fibrous layer, by means of which the vagina 

 is connected with adjacent parts, consists of connec- 

 tive tissue with elastic fibres, and in texture is looser 

 in its outer, denser in its inner, portions. The mus- 

 cular layer consists of bundles of smooth muscle- 

 cells, which present an indistinct grouping into an 

 outer portion, formed of longitudinally arranged 

 cells, and an inner, in which they have, in general, a 

 transverse arrangement. 



The mucous membrane consists of delicate connec- 

 tive tissue, loose in texture and containing coarser 

 and finer elastic fibres ; it presents numerous trans- 

 verse folds and elevations, and is covered by lami- 

 nated epithelium, the cells in the lower layers being 

 more or less spheroidal, but flat and scale-like at the 

 surface. Numerous papillae project into the epi- 

 thelium. Venous plexuses are formed within the 

 deeper portions of the mucous membrane, which 

 give to some parts of that structure the character of 

 erectile tissue. 



TECHNIQUE. 



Transverse Sections. A bit of the vaginal wall should 

 be stretched on cork and placed in a mixture of equal 

 parts of one-fourth-per-cent. solution of chromic acid 

 and alcohol, and after five days transferred to alcohol, in 



