The vagina consists of an internal mucous lining (membrane) continuous above with the mucous membrane lining the womb and below with the covering of the labia majora. The next covering (inward) is a muscular coat consisting of two layers—an external longitudinal and an internal circular. There is a layer of erectile tissue between the muscular coat and mucous lining. The lower end of the vagina is surrounded by a band of striped muscular fibers comprising the sphincter muscle of the vagina (sphincter vagina).
The internal organs of generation, more commonly called the pelvic organs.
These comprise the womb, fallopian tubes and ovaries.
[492 MOTHERS' REMEDIES]
The womb is the organ of pregnancy, and receives the fruitful egg (ovum), supports it during its development and expels it at the time of labor (parturition). In form it is pear-shaped, weighs from 12 drams to 3 ounces and is situated in the pelvic cavity, between the bladder and the rectum, with its base upwards and its apex, smaller end downward. Its upper broad extremity is called the fundus—base of the organ, and the lower, constricted, narrowed portion is called the Cervix (neck or constricted portion). The body of the womb gradually becomes narrower from the fundus to the Cervix.
Its anterior surface is covered on its upper three-quarters by the peritoneum, while the lower fourth is connected with the bladder. The peritoneum covers the whole of the posterior surface. The womb is held up (suspended) in the pelvis by ligaments; two anterior, womb and bladder (utero-vesical), two posterior, womb-sacral (utero-sacral), two lateral broad ligaments, and two round ligaments. The womb sacral (utero-sacral) which holds the womb well up in the hollow of the sacrum and the round ligaments which keep the womb well forward enter most actively into the support of the womb. The round ligaments are strong muscular fibrous cords and serve to hold the womb forward. When pregnancy exists they increase in size with the womb, and keep the fundus forward in its excursion upwards into the abdominal cavity, and after confinement, become smaller with the womb, guiding the womb back again to its regular position. The broad ligaments are little more than reflection of the peritoneum serving to support the vessels that nourish, as they go to and from the womb.
The womb has three coats, enclosing a central cavity. This cavity of the womb is small by comparison with the size of the organ and it communicates with the Fallopian tubes by two minute openings at each side of the body, and with the vagina below, through the mouth or opening of the womb.
The external coat of the womb is called servos, derived from the peritoneum; the middle or muscular coat, which forms the chief substance of the womb, consists of bundles of unstripped muscular fibers intermixed, with loose connective tissue, blood vessels, lymphatics and nerves; the internal or mucous coat is continuous through the fringed extremity of the fallopian tubes, with the peritoneum, and through the mouth of the womb (os uteri) with the mucous membrane of the vagina. This mucous membrane is lined in the body of the womb by epithelium arrayed in columns (Columnar Epithelium) which loses its ciliated (eye-lash) movement character during pregnancy. In the lower half of the Cervix, the epithelium (this kind of cell lines all canals having communication with the external air) is of the stratified (arranged in layers) variety. The appendages of the womb are the fallopian tubes, the ovaries and their ligaments and the round ligaments. The fallopian tubes convey the ova (eggs) from the ovaries to the cavity of the womb. They are two in number, one on each side, situated in the free border of the broad ligaments and extend from each horn, an excrescence of the womb that looks like a horn, of the womb outward to the sides of the pelvis; each is about five inches in length, and has a small canal beginning at the womb in a very small opening called the internal mouth (ostium internum). This canal gradually widens to its ending, the abdominal mouth (ostium abdominal) by which it communicates with the peritoneal cavity, the timbrae. A series of fringe-like processes surround this mouth or opening and this farther end is known as the fimbriated extremity. The tube has three coats, serous or external or peritoneal; the middle or muscular, continuous with that of the womb, and an internal or mucous coat continuous also with the lining of the womb and peritoneum (covered with ciliated Columnar Epithelium).
[WOMAN'S DEPARTMENT 493]
The Ovaries.—They are analogues, anatomically, of the testes in the male. They are two egg-shaped bodies situated one on each side of the womb on the posterior aspect of the broad ligament, below and behind the fallopian tubes; each is connected by its anterior margin to the broad ligament; internally to the womb by the ovarian ligament, externally to the fringe-like extremity of the fallopian tubes by a short cord-like ligament. They are white in color; about one and one-half inches long, three-quarters of an inch wide and one-third of an inch thick and weigh about two drams each.
The ovarian ligament extends from the inner side of the ovary to the superior angle of the (Uterus) womb. The round ligaments, two in number, are about five inches long and are situated between the layers of the broad ligament, one on each side of the womb in front and below the fallopian tube. They pass forward and outward from the womb through the internal abdominal ring, along the groin canal and out at the external abdominal ring.