FEMALE PERINEUM 375 



A leading peculiarity of the female urethra is its great dilatability. 

 Cases are on record in which vesical calculi weighing from two to four 

 ounces have traversed it, and thus escaped from the bladder. It thus 

 happens that in the extraction of foreign substances from the female 

 bladder, it is rarely necessary to have recourse to the knife. 



M. Transversus Perinei Profundus and M. Sphincter 

 Urethrse Membranacese (O.T. Compressor Urethrse Muscle). 

 The deep transverse muscle of the perineum is less marked 

 in the female than in the male, and is also less distinctly 

 separable from the sphincter of the membranous part of the 

 urethra. It rises laterally from the margin of the pubic arch, 

 at the junction of the ischial and pubic rami, and terminates 

 medially on the lower part of the posterior wall of the 

 vagina. Its anterior fibres blend with the posterior fibres of 

 the sphincter of the urethra. The sphincter consists of an 

 internal layer of fibres arranged circularly round the urethra, 

 and an external layer which springs from the pubic arch, 

 anterior to the origin of the deep transverse muscle and from 

 the inferior layer of the urogenital diaphragm. As the fibres 

 of this layer approach the medial plane some pass in front 

 of the vagina and urethra, and others are attached to the 

 posterior wall of the vagina. Both the above muscles are sup- 

 plied by twigs from the perineal branch of the pudendal nerve. 



Glandulae Vestibularis Majores (O.T. Bartholin's Glands). 

 These glands are the representatives, in the female, of the 

 bulbo-urethral glands of the male. They are two round or 

 oblong bodies, about the size of a horse-bean, placed one 

 upon each side of the entrance to the vagina immediately 

 behind the rounded end of the bulb, and under cover of 

 the sphincter vaginae. A long duct proceeds from each 

 gland, and opens in the angle between the labium minus 

 and the hymen or carunculae myrtiformes (Fig. 140, p. 373). 



Internal Pudendal Vessels and the Pudendal Nerve. The 

 internal pudendal vessels and the pudendal nerve have a 

 similar disposition to the corresponding vessels and nerve in 

 the male (p. 360). If anything, they are somewhat smaller. 



The student must therefore look for the artery to the bulb, 

 a branch of the internal pudendal, which in this case is given 

 to the bulb of the vagina, and the two terminal branches of 

 the internal pudendal artery, viz. the dorsal artery of the clitoris^ 

 and the artery to the corpus cavernosum. 



The pudendal nerve ends by dividing into the perineal 

 nerve and the dorsal nerve of the clitoris, 

 t 246 



