THE FEMALE GENITAL ORGANS. 877 



3. The Uterus. (Pigs. 411, 412.) / 



The uterus is a membranous sac to which the ovulum is^ carried, and in 

 which it is developed. 



Situation. — It is situated in the abdominal cavity, in the sublumbar 

 region, at the entrance to the pelvic cavity, where its posterior extremity is 

 placed. 



Form and relations. — In its posterior moiety, the uterus is a single 

 cylindrical reservoir, slightly depressed above and below ; this js iiiehody 

 of the uterus. Its anterior moiety is bifid, and gives rise to two cornua, 

 which curve upwards. 



The body is related, by its upper face, to the rectum, which lies on it 

 after passing between the two cornua ; it receives, on the sides of this face, 

 the attachment of the broad ligaments ; its lateral and anterior faces are 

 related to the intestinal convolutions. (Inferiorly, it is in relation with 

 the bladder.) Its anterior extremity (or fundus) is continuous, without 

 interruption, with each of the cornua ; the posterior is separated from the 

 vagina by a constriction of the neck (cervix) of the uterus. 



The cornua, mingled with the different portions of intestine which 

 occupy the same region, oftier : a free and convex inferior curvature ; a 

 superior curvature, to which the suspensory ligaments are attached ; a 

 posterior extremity, or base, fixed to the body of the organ ; and an anterior 

 extremity or summit — a rounded blind pouch looking downwards, and showing 

 the entrance of the oviduct. 



Means of attachment. — Floating in the abdominal cavity, like the in- 

 testines, the uterus is also, like them, attached by lamellar bands which 

 suspend it to the sublumbar region, and which for this reason have been 

 named the suspensory or broad ligaments of the uterus. 



These bands are two in number, are irregularly triangular in shape, and 

 are more developed before than behind. Close to each other posteriorly, 

 and separating in front like the branches of the letter V, they leave the 

 sublumbar surface and descend towards the uterus, to be attached by their 

 inferior border to the sides of the upper face of the body and the small 

 curvature of the cornua. Their anterior body is free ; they sustain the 

 oviducts and ovaries, the former being placed between the two serous layers 

 of the ligament, and the latter, placed within this ligament, receives a band 

 detached from the principal layer, forming with it, beneath the ovary, a 

 kind of small cupola. 



There is also another little narrow long band outside the broad ligament, 

 and which can be traced as far as the upper inguinal ring. Anteriorly, it 

 has a small enlarged appendix ; between the two layers forming this fold is 

 found a thin muscle, altogether like the male cremaster before the descent 

 of the testicle into the scrotum. This may be looked upon as the analogue 

 of the round ligament of Woman. 



The uterus is also fixed in its situation by its continuity with the 

 vagina. 



Interior. — The inner surface of this organ offers mucous folds, which 

 exist even in the foetus ; they are arranged in a longitudinal series, and are 

 not effacable by distension ; though they disappear during gestation, con- 

 sequent on the enlargement that takes place in the uterine cavity. 



This cavity has three compartments : the cavity of the body, and those 

 of the cornua. The latter are pierced, at their extremity, by the uterine 

 orifice of the Fallopian tube; while the former communicates with the 



