12 Maine: agriculturaIv expeiriment station. 1910. 



nearly equal in thickness. In the dorsal ligament, however, 

 the majority of the muscle bundles are in relation to the peri- 

 toneum on the medial side of the ligament and are continuous 

 with the muscle layer on that side of the oviduct. 



From the facts which have been brought out in this section 

 it appears that in the domestic fowl the outer muscle layer of 

 the oviduct is continuous with the muscle fibers from the liga- 

 ments. This is similar to the condition in mammals where the 

 outer longitudinal layer of muscle of the uterus develops from 

 the muscle fibers in the broad ligament.* 



Th]B Normal Rei^ations of the Cranial End of the; Ovi- 

 duct AND its Ligame;nts to the: Ovary, and the Signifi- 

 cance: OF These Relations. 



In all vertebrate animals the ovum at the time of ovulation 

 is, theoretically, cast off from the ovary into the abdominal cav- 

 ity. From the abdominal cavity it must get to the outside through 

 the oviduct. It is obviously of the highest importance that the 

 ovum should practically never fail to get into the oviduct. There 

 exist among the different vertebrate classes a whole series of 

 different structures and modes of physiological behavior, if this 

 term may be used, apparently adapted to ensure this result. 

 Thus in mammals the fimbriated funnel of the Fallopian tube 

 wraps itself around the ovary at ovulation in such a way that 

 while theoretically the &gg drops from the ovary into the ab- 

 dominal cavity, practically it drops into the oviduct. 



In the course of the present anatomical study it has been 

 found that the normal visceral relations in a laying hen are 

 such that the ovary is practically walled off by peritoneal sur- 

 faces from the rest of the abdominal cavity. Practically the 

 only line of egress from the "ovarian pocket" presently to be 



* Cf. Kreitzer. Anatomischc Untersuchungen iiber die Muskulatur der 

 nicht schwangeren Gpb.'irmutter. Land. Beitr. zur An?t. und Histol. 

 St. Petersburg, 18" ^ 



Heyken, G. y^ i-" Lomische Untersuchungen iiber die Muskubitur der 

 breiten Mutterbander. Gekr. Preisschr., Inaug. — Dissert. Kiel, iSyn. 



An excellent general account of this mammalian musculature is g'ven 

 in Nagel, W., Die weiblichen Geschlechtsorgane, in Bardeleben's tland- 

 buchs der. Anatomic des Menschen, 7 Bd, II Teil, i Abteilung. Jena 

 (Fischer) 1896. 



