the pavilion on the right side is much more contracted than on the left (Pl. XXXII,
fig. 3), which is wide and patulous. They both look forwards. Springing from
the supérior external margin of the ovary is a prominent fimbria ovarica, which
is prolonged outwards along the superior margin of the pavilion, on the inner aspect
of which there is a deep pouch at its base. This pouch is formed by a broad
transverse fold that passes between the ovarian attachments of the margin of
the pavilion. In Orcella this fold is further removed from the ovary and constitutes
a broad veil on the inside of the pavilion, dividing it into two chambers.
In Flatanista the margins of the pavilion are attached at the outer extremity
to the margins of the ovary, but in Orcella in the impregnated female one
border is continued as a delicate membrane along the Eallopian tube as far as
the horns.
Mi/rmte structwre o f Fallopian tube.—This tube in P. gangetica consists of
the most remarkably extensile tissue. A very small fragment, about one-half
of an inch in length, when freed of its external peritoneal coat is capable of
being extended to nearly one yard in length. The fibrous structure which
manifests this remarkable property resembles the fibrous layer of the uterus. In
both the virgin and maternal oviducts, the walls are thrown into well-marked
longitudinal folds, which, however, are best seen in the former. The wall of
the tube is lined with a well-defined coat of columnar epithelium overlying a
richly corpusculated fibrous layer, resting on another layer of much longer wavy
fibres, with fewer corpuscles, and to which the expansibility of the tube is chiefly
due.
JJtricular g lauds in the foetal a/nd in the virgin uterus.—I have pointed out
(ante, p. 397, Pl. XXX VIII, figs, 5, 6 and 7) that these structures are absent in the
foetal uterus of Orcella.
In Flatanista, however, utricular glands are well developed in the foetal womb
(PI. XXXYIII, figs. 1 and 2), indeed almost to the same extent as in the unimpregnated
uterus of the adult animal (fig. 4). This observation shows that it is unsafe
to form an a priori judgment as to whether these glands should, or should not, exist
in foetal uteri, because Professor Turner, who is generally distinguished by great
scientific caution, states that utricular “ glands are not formed during intra-uterine
life, and it is probable that they are not fully developed until the uterus reaches
the stage of sexual maturity.”
Under the microscope, each gland appears as a distinct system in the virgin (fig.
4), depending in a highly-branched manner by a single tube from an orifice in the
cylindrical epithelial surface-layer, situated in a slight depression of the mucosa.
Together, the glands constitute a considerable mass, forming one-fourth or so of the
total thickness of the walls, and are closely packed against each other, but very
minute compared with the glands of the gravid uterus (fig. 8), than which also'
they have a much more decidedly vertical arrangement, the glands in the
gravid uterus becoming stretched out by the extension of its walls. They would
appear to be a s . numerous in the foetal and virgin as in the gravid uterus,
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
Ovary of virgin.—The ovaries (PI. XXXI, fig. 1, 0, and PI. XXXII, figs. 1
and 3, o,) are perfectly sessile, elongately oval bodies, about 0-76 inch in length
and O'47 in breadth. A broad fibrous fold, covered with peritoneum, and enclosing
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, halfway
between that point and the rectum. The ureters follow the dorsal attachment
of this fold on either side, which forms a deep pouch thus. (PI. XXXII, fig. 3, JPo,)
with the folds of peritoneum holding the Fallopian tubes in position, and which
ruu outwards, and tben forwards, to the kidneys.
On slitting off the left ovary I cut through a small sac at its base, apparently
c l o s e d a n d l i n e d with serous membrane thrown in folds.
Vagina m the gravid female.—From the anterior margin of its.orifice to the
os uteri externum, in the gravid female, the dimensions of which have been previously
given, the Vagina measures 8-25. inches, while from the former point , to the
anus it is only l'BO 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 e n l a r g e d i n 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 spaoe. Between, and upon the longitudinal folds, an immense number
of the minute orifices of glands open in linear series corresponding to. the direction
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 uten
externum is marked first by three prominent tongue-like mucous folds, and anteriorly
to these by two permanent constrictions or induplications of the vaginal