74 PROFESSOR TURNER ON THE PLACENTATION OF THE SLOTHS. 
the sides of the abdominal cavity. From each side of the uterus a well-defined 
broad ligament proceeded continuous with the peritoneum covering the adja- 
cent kidney. With a sharp knife I cut through the broad ligaments, and 
removed the whole of the genital organs, together with the lower end of the 
rectum from the pelvis. 
The uterus was a single organ, and exhibited no trace of a subdivision into 
cornua (fig. 1.) It was ovoid in form, with the broader, rounded end at the 
fundus. Its length was 7 inches, and the greatest circumference 104 inches. 
A slender cord-like round ligament was attached to the side of the uterus, a 
little below the Fallopian tube. The Fallopian tube was slender, about 14 
inch long, and somewhat serpentine in its course. The trumpet-shaped mouth 
was situated on the free edge of a fold of peritoneum, which formed the 
anterior boundary of a deep pouch, in which the ovary was lodged. Through 
its mouth a bristle could be passed along the tube without difficulty. Its meso- 
arium was so short that the ovary was closely attached to the uterine wall. 
The left ovary, 4ths-inch long by 3ths-inch broad, was pale yellowish-white in 
colour ; the right ovary, about one-third larger, was of a brighter yellow, and 
contained a well-defined corpus luteum. 
The external genital orifice and the rectum, the former of which opened in front 
of the latter, were surrounded by a common fringe of hairs ; and on each side of 
the genital orifice was a pouch-like depression of the integument. This orifice 
was surmounted by a clitoris, and was continued into a uro-genital chamber or 
vestibule. Half an inch from this orifice, the urethra opened into the vestibule 
immediately in front of the mouth of the genital passage: the urethra readily 
admitted a thick probe, and its canal, after a course of 3 inch, imbedded in the 
inferior wall of the genital passage, dilated into a pyriform bladder. The genital 
passage, 14 inch long, opened directly and freely by a single orifice into the cavity 
of the uterus ; and its vestibular orifice was encircled by a projecting lip, which 
gave to the orifice an appearance not unlike an os uteriexternum. The passage 
contained yellowish mucus; the mucous membrane of itsinferior wall was elevated 
into a feeble longitudinal mesial fold; and a slight circular fold marked where 
it became continuous with the uterine cavity. It is customary to regard this 
genital passage in the sloths as the vagina rather than the cervix uteri, though 
its characters in some respects more resemble the latter than the former. 
Numerous tortuous arteries and veins were seen in the broad ligaments 
on their way to the ovaries and substance of the uterus; their ramifications 
beneath the serous membrane could be distinctly traced, and the veins from 
opposite broad ligaments freely anastomosed on the surfaces of the uterus. I 
introduced injecting pipes into a large artery and vein in each broad ligament, 
and an injection, consisting of carmine suspended in gelatine, was then gently 
passed into these vessels by my assistant, Mr Strr.ine. 
