Each tube is about four inches long. Near the uterus its cavity will just admit an ordinary bristle; but near its free end, at the ovary, it is as large as a goose-quill.
It is a peculiar tube in that it terminates in a number of fringe-like processes, one of which is always attached to the ovary itself.
Object of This Tube.—The Fallopian tube conveys the sperm of the male from the uterus to the ovary, and also takes the germ-cell (or ovule, or egg) from the ovary to the uterus.
When a ripe egg is about to be discharged from the ovary, one of these fringe-like processes of the Fallopian tube grasps it and receives it into the mouth of the tube, whence it is conveyed directly into the uterine canal.
Ovary.—On each side of the uterus and in each side of the pelvic cavity is an ovary. It is about one and a half inches in length, three-fourths of an inch in width, and one-third of an inch in thickness. It weighs from one to two drachms, and is an elongated, oval-shaped body.
| Fig. 8. This figure illustrates the course followed by an ovum. The ripened egg leaves the ovary (1), passes down the Fallopian tube (2), and thence into the uterine cavity (3). | Fig. 9. An exceedingly minute piece of an ovary, highly magnified. It shows eight ova or eggs. |
Object of Ovaries.—The ovaries are the essential organs of generation in the female. In each ovary are large numbers of cells, ovules, or eggs, one of which, at least, is supposed to pass into the uterine cavity with each menstruation. Anatomists tell us that each human ovary contains as many as 30,000 of these ovules, or eggs.
LOCAL TREATMENT.—FAST PASSING AWAY.
It Makes One Indignant.—When I recall the terrible and almost horrible treatment which women have had to undergo in the past, I cannot help but become deeply indignant. It seems as if all medical study had gone for naught, as if the teachings of nature had been forgotten, and most of all, as if no such thing as delicacy and modesty existed.