CHAPTEE XII 



THE INNERVATION OF THE FEMALE GENERATIVE 

 ORGANS — UTERINE CONTRACTION — PARTURI- 

 TION—THE PUERPERAL STATE 



" Birth is the end of that time when we really knew our business, and the 

 beginning of the days wherein we know not what we would do, or do." — 

 Samuel Butler. 



The innervation of the generative organs of the male was dealt with 

 at some length in an earlier part of this work. It remains in the 

 present chapter to describe the nerve supply to the female generative 

 system, and more particularly to the uterus, since this is the organ 

 which is especially concerned in the process of parturition. But 

 before giving an account of the innervation of the internal organs, 

 the nerve supply to the vulva and clitoris may be briefly dealt with. 



The Innervation of the External Generative Organs 



The external generative organs in the female are similarly 

 innervated to those of the male (p. 265 et seq.). 



Langley and Anderson ^ found that stimulation of the first five 

 lumbar nerves in the cat, or the third, fourth, and fifth lumbar, 

 nerves in the rabbit, produced the same effects as in the male 

 excepting that they were less pronounced. The effects were (1) 

 Pallor of the clitoris and of the mucous membrane of the vulva, 

 accompanied by slight retraction of the clitoris, (2) Contraction of 

 the vulva, and (3) Contraction of the muscles of the adjoining skin, 

 drawing the vulva dorsally towards the rectum. 



Langley ,2 and subsequently Langley and Anderson,^ found that 

 two groups of effects, which were antagonistic to one another, could 

 be produced by stimulating the sacral set of nerves in the vertebral 

 canal, but that, as in the male, only those fibres which exercised an 

 inhibitory influence run from the spinal cord in the sacral nerve 

 roots. The inhibitory effects produced were (1) Flushing of the 



1 Langley and Anderson, "The Innervation of the Pelvic and Adjoining 

 Viscera," Jour, of Physiol., vol. zix., 1895. 



2 Langley, "The Innervation of the Pelvic Viscera," Proc. Phys. Soc, Jour, 

 of Physiol., vol. xii., 1891. 



^ Langley and Anderson, loc. cit. 



560 



