1040 



THE FEMALE REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS 



Its boundaries are ill defined posteriorly, and the term is used with different 

 signiticanee by different anatomists. Opening into it are the urethra, the glands of 

 Bartholin, and a few glands of the same nature as those of the urethra, surround- 

 ing the external mi'atus. 



" The glands of Bartholin prol>ably represent Cowper's glands in the male, but 

 are more superticially jilaced. They are two little racemose glands, aljout a third 

 of an inch long, situated one on either side beneath the lateral wall of the vestibule 

 and behind the bulbi vestibuli. The duct, about three-quarters of an inch in 

 lengtli, oju-ns immediately in front of the vaginal orifice opposite its meridian. 



Vessels. — The vulvar structures are supplied by branches of the external and 

 internal pudic arteries. The veins end in the corresponding trunks, and there is 

 in addition a free anastomosis with the veins of the round ligament in the sub- 

 cutaneous fat of the labium. The lymphatics terminate for the most part in the 

 inguinal glands, a few ])assing to the femoral glands. About the vaginal orifice is 

 a neutral territory in which the vulvar and vaginal absorbents intercommunicate. 



The erectile structures of the vulva correspond morphologically to those of the 

 male organ; the corpora cavernosa are represented by the clitoris, and the corpus 



Fig. 632.— Diagkammatic Repre-sextatiox of the Perix.eal Structuees ix the Female. 



ISCHIO-PUBIC ARCri 



CSUS CLITORIOIS WITH 

 13CHI0-CAVERNOSUS 



BULBO-CAVERNOSUS 

 COVERING BULBUS 

 VESTIBULI 



Superficial trian- 

 gular ligament 



GLANS CLITORIDIS 

 WITH PREPUCE 



PARS INTERMEDIALIS 

 Mucous membrane 

 of vestibule 



MEATUS URINARIUS 



BULBUS VESTIBULI 



GLAND OF BARTHOLIN 



Sphincter ani 



si)ongiosum, cleft in the female by the vulvar orifice, appears beneath the mucous 

 membrane of the vestibule in the form of two vascular plexuses, one on each side, 

 called the Ijulbi vestibuli; and an indistinct mesial band extending from the clitoris 

 to the meatus is believed by Pozzi to represent the anterior part of the corpus 

 spongiosum. 



The CLITORIS appears as a diminutive penile appendage at the upper part of 

 the vulva, and is enil)raced by a kind of prepuce formed by the union of the two 

 labia minora. It is composed of two corpora cavernosa which differ from the 

 corresponding masculine structures only in their size and in their union distally 

 into a rounded imperforate extremity, the glans clitoridis, covered by a layer of 

 integument. The crura are su]iported dorsally ])y a suspensory ligament, and are 

 attached to the ischial rami in the same manner as in the male. 



The clitoris is relatively smaller in the adult than in the child, and is almost 

 always concealed within the rima pudendi. It is a highly sensitive organ, and is 

 capable of erection. 



The bulbi vestibuli are two erectile bodies of somewhat pyriform shape, lying 

 one on either side of the vestibule beneath the mucous membrane. The larger 



