PLATANISTA. 483 



their seeming greater abundance in the latter being due to increase in their 

 dimensions. 



The fibrous and corpusculated nature of the submucous tissue is well displayed 

 in fig. 2. 



Ovary of virgin.— The ovaries (PI. XXXI, fig. 1, o, and PI. XXXII, figs. 1 

 and 3, o,) are perfectly sessile, elongately oval bodies, about 0*75 inch in length 

 and 0*47 in breadth. A broad fibrous fold, covered with peritoneum, and enclos- 

 ing blood vessels in its margin extends from the inner end of each ovary to 

 the dorsal wall, ceasing on a line with the inferior border of the kidneys, half- 

 way between that point and the rectum. The ureters follow the dorsal attachment 

 of this fold on either side, which forms a deep pouch thus (PL XXXII, fig. 3, Po,) 

 with the folds of peritoneum holding the Pallopian tubes in position, and which 

 run outwards, and then forwards, to the kidneys. 



On slitting off the left ovary I cut through a small sac at its base, apparently 

 closed and lined with serous membrane thrown in folds. 



Vagina in the gravid female. — Prom the anterior margin of its orifice to the 

 OS uteri externum, in the gravid female, the dimensions of which have been previ- 

 ously given, the vagina measures 8*25 inches, while from the former point to the 

 anus it is only 1'50 inch, which is also the greatest diameter of the canal at its 

 middle. The anterior wall of the lower two-thirds of its widest part is thrown into 

 large folds, possessing distinct characters, whereas the dorsal wall is comparatively 

 smooth, having only four rather feeble longitudinal folds, a circumstance which 

 is probably attributable to the fact that extension of the canal is more limited in 

 the latter than in the former direction, there being less space for expansion. The 

 position of the folds in question is mapped out in the virgin vagina, in which the 

 space, posterior to the permanent folds, is divided into two by the transverse line 

 already described. The folds of the hinder division of this space, as they occur in 

 the virgin, can still be clearly traced in the almost parturient vagina, but they are, , 

 of course, enormously enlarged in the latter and form a prominent oblong swelling, 

 with a smooth space on either side of it. The anterior division of the space, which 

 is perfectly smooth in the virgin, is raised in the gravid female into a convoluted 

 mass of swollen folds, some of which join the lateral and mesial permanent folds of 

 the posterior space. Between, and upon the longitudinal folds, an immense number 

 of the minute orifices of glands open in linear series corresponding to the direc- 

 tion of the folds, with others scattered irregularly over the surface. The anterior 

 portion of this part of the vagina is, moreover, encircled by five more or less 

 well marked fine sharply defined furrows, which divide and subdivide between the 

 ventral convolutions, each furrow being the tract in which are to be found the 

 orifices of numerous glands. In one inch of a furrow as many as twenty glandular 

 orifices can be detected. 



The portion of the vagina lying between the foregoing region and the os uteri 

 externum is marked first by three prominent tongue-like mucous folds, and ante- 

 riorly to these by two permanent constrictions or induplications of the vaginal 



