As old age advances, the internal organs shrivel, as they now receive much less blood than at former pe riods. The ovaries, in particular, are reduced to little more than half their former size, and their vesicles either entirely disappear, or are changed into hard tu bercles.
The changes that take place in these organs, in con sequence of conception, scarcely come within the plan of the present article. They will be described under We shall mention only the more important morbid appearances that take place in the female organs. In a few instances, children are born with no appearance of external organs. In these cases the children are females, only the labia have grown together, and thus the en trance of the vagina is concealed. A remarkable in stance of this nature exists at present in Edinburgh. The vagina is sometimes found ulcerated ; and it is said, that, in consequence of violent inflammation, the sides of its mucous membrane have grown together. Not unfrequently the cavity of the vagina is found ob structed by seirrhus tumours. The whole cavity has been found inverted.
The uterus has been seen inflamed, ulcerated, and enlarged, in consequence of seirrhus; its cavity has been contracted by tubercles, polypus, stony, bony, or earthy concretions, or in consequence of stricture. Sometimes its opening into the vagina is entirely obliterated. The cavity of the uterus has been seen enlarged, filled with water, or with hydatids, or containing a dead foetus. It is occasionally found retroverted, or turned back, be tween the vagina and the rectum, and not unfrequently it has been seen ruptured.
The ovaries arc sometimes found inflamed, sometimes scirrhus and enlarged. They have been seen dropsical, and, occasionally, hair, teeth, and other marks of im perfect impregnation have been detected in them. Sometimes even a perfect feetus has been found within a membranous cavity, into which the ovarian has been expanded. Now and then there is only one On11111111 ; and cases have been related in which both were want ing.
The uterine tubes are sometimes seen in a state of inflammation, or adhering, in consequence of inflam mation, to the neighbouring parts. Sometimes they are dropsical. In a few cases they have been found im pervious, and now and then they arc seen dilated, and containing an impregnated ovum, and even a complete fcetus.
The anatomy of the gravid uterus, and the develop ment of the fcetus, will be considered in the article Ali n wiFERY.
The female breasts, or mamma., are secreting glands, though, unlike the other organs of that nature, they per form the office of secretion only occasionally. They are situated between the common integuments of the ster no-lateral parts of the thorax and the pectoral muscles, to the sternal surface of which they are attached, by loose, fatty, cellular substance. In the centre of their peripheral surface stands the nipple, which is composed partly of a ligamentous substance, surrounding a num ber of convoluted tubes, which open at the point of the nipple. Round the nipple there is a circular ring, cover ed, like the nipple, with a soft, delicate cuticle, differ ing in colour from that which covers the neighbouring skin. This is called the areola of the breast. On the surface of this areola are seen several little perforated eminences, which are the excretory ducts of small glands that lie round the base of the nipple, and secrete a fatty fluid.
The principal part of the breasts is made up partly of fatty cellular substance, and partly of several glandular bodie, that are collected first into smaller, and then greater lobes, with cellular substance lying between them. These glandular lobes are extremely vascular, and are well supplied with nerves and absorbents; but their principal part consists of a great number of small tubes, which appear to take their origin from the ext•e mities of the arteries, and, gradually uniting into trunks, pass from each lobe in a radiated manner towards the base of the nipple. These are called the lactiferous ducts, because in them the secretion of the milk appears to take place. From their origin to the base of the nipple, these tubes are accompanied with fibres of a tough, elastic substance. When they reach the nipple, they are usually coiled up in a spiral form, though easily distended, when the nipple is drawn outward, as by the lips of the child. The number of lactiferous tubes that enter the nipple is variable, but generally from twelve to eighteen may be counted, opening round the point of the nipple. When they reach the nipple, they appear to be quite distinct from each other, though some anatomists have supposed that they form a circle of communication around the nipple.