vulva, hymen, and clitoris. Among the external organs are also 

generally included the mons Veneris and the breasts or mammary glands. 

SUBCHAPTER A 

THE INTERNAL SEX ORGANS 

[Illustration: OVARY.] 

=The Ovaries.= The ovaries are the essential organs of reproduction. 

For it is they that generate the eggs, or _ova_, or _ovules_, which, 

after becoming _fertilized_ or _fecundated_ by the spermatozoa of the 

male, develop into children. Without the ovaries of the female, the 

same as without the testicles of the male (to which they correspond), 

no children could be begotten, and the entire human race would quickly 

disappear from our planet. The ovaries are two in number; they are 

embedded in the _broad ligaments_ which support the womb in the 

pelvis, one on each side of the womb. They are of a grayish or whitish 

pink color, and are about an inch and a half long, three-quarters of 

an inch wide, and one-third of an inch thick. They weigh from 

one-eighth to one-quarter of an ounce. Their surface is either smooth 

or rough and puckered. Think of a large blanched almond and you will 

have a pretty fair idea of the size and shape of an ovary. 

=The Fallopian Tubes.= The Fallopian tubes (so called from Fallopius, 

a great anatomist, who discovered them; also called oviducts: egg 

conductors, because they conduct the eggs from the ovary into the 

uterus) are two very thin tubes, extending one from each upper angle 

of the womb to the ovaries; but at their ovarian end they expand into 

a fringed and trumpet-shaped extremity. The fringes are referred to as 

_fimbria_. They are about five inches long and only about 

one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter; the function of the tubes is to 

catch the ova as they burst forth from the ovaries and to convey them 

to the uterus. Taking into consideration the very narrow _lumen_, or 

_caliber_, of the Fallopian tubes, it is easy to understand why even a 

very slight inflammation is apt to clog them up, to seal their mouths 

or openings, thus rendering the woman _sterile_, or incapable of 

having children. For, if the Fallopian tubes are "clogged" up, the 

eggs, or ova, have no way of reaching the uterus. 

The Greek name for the Fallopian tube is salpinx (salpinx in Greek 

means tube). An inflammation of the Fallopian tube is therefore called 

salpingitis. (A salpingitis has the same effect in causing sterility 

in the female as has an epididymitis in the male.) Salpingectomy is 

the cutting away of the whole or of a piece of the Fallopian tube 

(corresponds to vasectomy in the male). 

=The Uterus.= The uterus or womb is the organ in which the fertilized 

ovum, or egg, grows and develops into a child. It is a hollow muscular 

organ, about the size of a pear, with thick walls, capable under the