Diagram of the uterus.
1, fundus; 2, cavum uteri; 3, body; 4, internal os; 5, cervix; 6, external os.
When the woman is in an erect position, the vaginal orifice looks directly to the ground, the course of the vagina being almost vertical, with a slight inclination from the front to the back toward the vaginal vaults. The vault or fornix is divided by the projecting cervix into two lateral vaults, an anterior shallow and a posterior deep vault.
CUT XIX.
Uterus of a four-year-old child.
ce, cylindrical epithelium; mt, muscular tissue; g, uterine gland.
Uterus.—The uterus is a hollow, pyriform, flattened, thick muscular organ. It is divided into the upper thick end, or fundus, the body, and the neck or cervix. The uterine cavity has somewhat the shape of a triangle, its basis corresponding to the uterine base. The uterine cavity communicates with the canals of the Fallopian tubes by two openings at the angles of the basis. The lower angle is continued into the cervical canal and opens into the vagina. The median part of the cervical canal is widened. The narrow opening into the cavity of the uterus is known under the name of os internum, while the opening into the vagina is called os externum. The uterine cavity is coated with a mucous membrane, covered with columnar epithelia of the ciliated type, which bears a great number of tubular glands.
The mucous membrane of the cervical canal shows a system of small folds, the arbor vitae. The covering of the cervical canal is also a high columnar, ciliated epithelium. The latter changes into a pavement epithelium at the external os.
CUT XX.
