Previous to the age of puberty, most of the male or gans arc small, and receive much less blood than is distributed to them after that period. In particular, the seminal vesicles are remarkably small and lank, and the prostate gland is soft and flaccid. In old age the testes arc much diminished in size, and are much less firm than before. On the contrary, the seminal vesi cles and the prostate gland usually become hard, and sometimes cartilaginous, though their secreting office is also diminished.
In noticing the morbid appearances of the male organs, we shall confine ourselves chiefly to those which have been observed in the testes, the seminal vesicles, the prostate gland, and the urethra.
The testes have been seen in a state of active inflam mation, ulcerated, or even gangrenous; they have been found enlarged, affected with scirrhus and cancer, of a soft pulpy consistence, or hardened into cartilaginous, or sometimes even bony substance. Water has not unfrequently accumulated between the testis and its vaginal coat, forming that modification of dropsy called hydrocele. Sometimes the vaginal coat has been found to contain hydatids, sometimes an adhesion is found to have taken place between the vaginal and ahbugiucous coats, and not unfrequently cartilaginous bodies have been seen, either loose within the vaginal coat, or at tached to the albuginca. The vas• djirens has been found contracted by stricture, or having some part of its cavity entirely obliterated.
The seminal vesicles have been found inflamed, scro fulous, or scirrhous. They have been seen remarkably small, and sometimes one of them has been entirely wanting. Their ducts are sometimes impervious.
The prostate gland is often found enlarged and scirrhous, and it has been seen in a state of ulceration. Its ducts are sometimes found enlarged, and sometimes obstructed by calculous concretions.
The urethra is frequently found inflamed, sometimes ulcerated, and very commonly contracted by a stricture of its mucous membrane. Sometimes stony concretions are found within the canal, and in a few cases this has been seen lined by a layer of earthy matter.
Of (hr. Frinale ie,, The Inn t important female Organs are the ragiea, the arras, %s it!' its tubes, and the mat it s.
The vagina extends 1110 IA pail of the oh the pubis dorsal and urieword within the ; be tween the urinary bladder and the rei tune with, eat h of whi•h it is connected by « Ilular substance. lis diame ter is vaiialik, but it is a little longer on its •sacr—ct.reue that On its at/two-4h mil part. This < anal is composed chiefly of a thick mucous membrane, which, front its mime roils lolds, admits of great oilatation, and is pros i (led with a considerable number of mucous glands, or follicles, furnishing the fluid that lubric ates its central surface. Near the Narrri-Nlf emit orifice or the vagina, this canal is sun oinal«1 on each side by a vei y vascular or cellular texture, commonly called the cavernous body or the vagina.
The exterior opening of the vagina forms the puden dum muliebrc anatomists, composed of the two peri pheral or external labia, two central or internal labia. commonly called nyinph.e, and the clitoris. This last body nearly resembles, both in shape and structure, the male penis, but is seldom more than about an inch long, and scarcely half an huh in thickness.
Socrad of the glans of the clitoris, and between the two nymphs, is the external orifice of the female ure thra, which differs from that of man, in being shorter, straighter, and of larger diameter, and not having with in its cavity the orifices described in the male urethra.
The uterus is a cavity of a triangular form, situated in the sacral part of the pets is, betss( en the body of the urinary bladder and the rectum, and connected with these by cellular substance. Its sides are very thick, and extremely vascular. It is generally divided, like the urinary bladder, into jitndmv, body, and neck ; the finch's being its most atlantal part, its neck nearly the most sacral part, and the body icing between these. The sacral extremity of the uterus projects more or less within the cavity or the vogiba, and terminates in a transverse opening, called the nmeli of the uterus, and, from a fantastical comparison w ith the mouth of a tench, denominated, by anatomists, Gs tinc.c.
The size of the uterus varies in different subjects, especially before and after child-bearing. Before. im pregnation, it is generally described as being between two and three inches in length, and alum two inches at its broadest part, or flinch's. At its neck it is scarcely an inch across, but from this part to the mouth it becomes broader. Its cavity, before impregnation, is remarkably small, being described as scarcely capable of containing a hazel nut. Hence the thickness of its sides must be very great. These are said to be above half an inch thick at the neck, but rather thinner towards the fun tins. The sides of the uterus are very firm and com pact, partly composed of membranous cells, partly of numerous ramifications of blood vessels, and partly of muscular fibres. It is lined by a continuation of the mucous membrane that invests the cavity of the vagina; and, as in that cavity, the membrane is reflected into numerous folds, that run in an oblique, transverse di rection, and have between their doublings many mucous follicles of various sizes. The peripheral surface of the uterus, next the cavity of the pelvis, is almost en tirely covered by the pritoneum, which is reflected from the stui nal side of the inc.; over the dorsal side of the urinary bladder; and from the dorsal part Of the uterus over the atlantal part of the rectum. From the lateral parts of the uterus two considerable reflections of the same membrane pass to the sides of the gels is, and from their great breadth, and the office they serve, of supporting the utrrus in the impregnated state, are called the broad ligaments of the uterus.