The uterine glands are lined by a fine den tate epitheliuin, the cells of which are only slightly coherent at their margins.
The orifices by which they terminate upon the surface of the uterine cavity vary in di ameter froni 11,r," to 540".
In addition to the glands or canals already described, there may be often observed inter mixed with them snort mucous crypts, or even closed follicles. These appear to have been little noticed in the uterine cavity, but they are very distinctly- seen when accidentally dis tended by accumulation of fluid. They then constitute a variety of those growths, which in more advanced stages have been designated by Dr. Oldham channel polypi. • The arrangement of the capillary vessels of the uterine mucous membrane is peculiar and exactly resembling the cerebral convolu tions. On account of this peculiarity it is difficult to determine whether these so-called glands consist of single isolated canals, or of a series communicating with each other. For the same reason it is also difficult to ascertain the precise mode of their termination towards the muscular coat, whether in a blind extremity in every case, as Weber represents them, or characteristic. The capillaries, which are of large size, usually descend between the canals of the uterine glands, giving to them a few small branches in their course. Having reached the surface of the mucous membrane they spread out into a meshwork of round oval and hexagonal spaces, in the centre of each of which may be usually observed the orifice of a uterine gland. This is most easily seen in the neighbourhood of the Fallopian tubes, where the capillary network and glandular orifices are usually arranged with greater regularity than in other portions of the uterine cavity.
In many places, however, the small vessels furnishing the capillaries of the mucous mem brane may be seen in injected preparations, lying close beneath the surface with which they run parallel, and if the veins have been filled, one or two principal ones may be no ticed on each half of the median line, running in the longitudinal direction, and communica ting by short branches with the capillaries just mentioned, from which the blood is thus conveyed away through the muscular walls to the larger veins.
The network of capillaries thus formed lies very superficially with regard to the uterine surface. The layer of epithelium covering them, and the nuclear corpuscles and amor phous tissue supporting them, appear to have so little cohesion, and to form so slight a pro tection, that the vessels are often seen to be nearly bare, while in some instances the indi vidual capillaries may be observed hanging out loose into the uterine cavity, and giving to its surface a villous appearance. This constitutes one of thcbse conditions which have led many anatomists to assert, and more to deny, that the mucous membrane of the cavity of the uterus is furnished with true villi.
Structure and arrangement of the tissues conzposing the cervix.— The cervix is com posed of nearly the same elements as those which form the body of the uterus, but they are differently proportioned and arranged in the two organs.
The cervix cannot be said to consist, like the body, of three coats. It receives a cover ing of peritoneum only upon its posterior surface, while the anterior wall, as well as the lateral borders, remain uninvested. With the exception, therefore, of this partial cover ing, the cervix consists of a muscular and a mucous coat only (fig. 426-431.).
Muscular coat of the cervix.— On account of the large admixture of fibrous tissue with the muscular element here existing, this might with almost as much propriety be called the fibrous coat of the cervix. The muscular element of the cervix consists of the same fusiform fibre-cells as in the body ; but the elementary corpuscles are here scan tily- seen. The fibrous element consists of long detached fibrils or of bundles of fibres of white fibrous tissue intermixed with much unformed material of the same kind, but stronger and tougher than that which unites the constituents of the muscular and mucous coats of the uterine body.