The pathology and treatment of diseases of the ovaries / by Lawson Tait. --.

  • Tait, Lawson, 1845-1899.
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The pathology and treatment of diseases of the ovaries / by Lawson Tait. --. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    outside by the shed sperm of the male, as in all fishes. In such cases there is free communication between the peritoneal cavity and the outside water. In higher orders the ovaries are tubular glands, the tubes being continued, as oviducts, to the outside, opening above and behind the anus. In all other vertebrata there is a break between the oviduct and the ovary ; and the higher we go in the animal scale, the more complex does this oviduct become, till we get to the marsupialia and mammalia, when a part of it is specialized for the retention of the embryo till it is less or more ready to maintain an independent existence. At an early period of embryonic life in the mammal the pri- mordial kidneys (Wolffian bodies) are each symmetrically pro- vided with a duct—the Wolffian duct—which passes backward along the outer side of its corresponding gland, and opens pos- teriorly into the sac of the allantois. Somewhat later another duct appears on the anterior surface of each Wolffian body, but remains throughout its whole extent distinct from this gland, and never functionally connected with it. Traced backward from the gland it soon comes in contact with the Wolffian duct, and together they form the genital cord. The Miillerian duct opens at its anterior extremity into the pleuro-peritoneal cavity, and posteriorly into the sac of the al- lantois. In the male the Wolffian ducts persist, and ultimately form the vasa deferentia, whilst the Miillerian ducts atrophy, with the exception of a small portion, which persists as the vesi- cula prostatica, or male uterus. In all animals but the didelphous and monodelphous mam- malia, the Miillerian ducts undergo no further modification of any great morphological importance, save in birds, where the right duct is atrophied at an early period and the left only is developed. But in the monodelphous mammalia the two ducts become united at a short distance from their posterior openings, and then, by the disappearance of the coalesced wall, form a vagina with two uterine openings; or, by a further coalescence, form a single vagina and a single uterus, into which two Fallo- pian tubes open, these tubes being the survivals, in the higher mammals, of the two Miillerian ducts, retaining their openings into what was the pleuro-peritoneal cavity before its division by the diaphragm. In some didelphous mammalia the two tubes remain separate throughout their length, giving two vaginae, two uteri, and two Fallopian tubes, and instances of all the vary- ing conditions found in antecedent animals are found occasion- ally in women as reversions. In female mammals the Wolffian ducts disappear almost en- tirely in most species, being permanently and constantly repre-