Page:The Works of William Harvey (part 1 of 2).djvu/299

 and of structure. In the fowl that is with egg, or that has lately laid, it is very different from what it is in the pullet, the uterus of which is fleshy and round, like an empty purse, and its cavity so insignificant that it would scarcely contain a bean; smooth externally, it is wrinkled and occupied by a few longi- tudinal plicse internally : at first sight you might very well mistake it either for a large urinary bladder or for a second smaller stomach. In the gravid state, however, and in the fowl arrived at maturity (a fact which is indicated by the redder colour of the comb), the uterus is of much larger dimensions and far more fleshy; its plicse are also larger and thicker, it in general approaches the size which we should judge necessary to receive an egg; it extends far upwards in the direction of the spinal column, and consists of numerous divisions or cells, formed by replications of the extended uterus, similar to those of the colon in quadrupeds and man. The inferior portion of the uterus, as the largest and thickest, and most fleshy of all, is strengthened by many plicse of large size. Its configuration internally is oval, as if it were the mould of the egg. The ascending or produced portion of the uterus I designate the processus uteri: this part Fabricius calls the "uterus secundus," and says that it consists of three spiral turns or flexures ; Ulyssus Aldrovandus, again, names it the " stomachum uteri." I must admit that in this part there are usually three turns to be observed ; they are not, however, by any means so regular but that, as in the case of the cells of the colon, nature some- times departs from her usual procedure here.

The uterus as it ascends higher, so does it become ever the thinner and more delicate, containing fewer and smaller plicse, until at length going off into a mere membrane, and that of the most flimsy description, it constitutes the infundibulum ; which, reaching as high as the waist or cincture of the body, embraces the entire ovary.

On this account, therefore, Fabricius describes the uterus as consisting of three portions; viz., the commencement, the middle, and the end. " The commencement," says he, " de- generating into a thin and most delicate membrane, forms an ample orifice, and bears a resemblance to an open-mouthed tube or funnel. The next portion (which I call the processus uteri), consisting of three transverse spiral turns, serves for the