Manual of gynecology / by D. Berry Hart and A.H. Freeland Barbour.

Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Manual of gynecology / by D. Berry Hart and A.H. Freeland Barbour. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    Labia Minora. Clitoris. Vestibule. Vaginal Orifice. 4 ANA TOM Y OF PEL VIS. extending from the symphysis pubis backwards between the thighs, and meeting each other posteriorly in the middle line about 2.7 cm. (1 inch) in front of the anus. Each labium has an outer and inner surface, and consists of a thick fold of skin enclosing a quantity of fat, blood-vessels, and dartos. Superiorly, where they are best developed, they form by their junction—anterior commissure—the structure known as the mons veneris (vide Plate I.); while posteriorly they are a mere fold of skin known as the Fourchette or posterior commissure. The fat and connec- tive tissue are therefore almost entirely wanting at the fourchette, which is not a distinct structure but is simply the posterior junction of the thinned-out labia majora. Both labia are, in the adult, covered with crisp hair which is most abundant over the mons veneris and outer surface but very much less on the inner. The Labia Minora (fig. 1, b) are two small oblique folds of skin, one on the inner surface of each labium majus. Posteriorly they blend insensibly with the labium majus at about its middle, while anteriorly they converge and each divides into two small branches—an upper and a lower. The upper branches meet to form the prepuce of the clitoris (fig. 1, c), while the lower in a similar way form its suspensory ligament. As a rule the labia minora do not, in the adult, project beyond the labia majora. Sebaceous glands are present on both labia. The Clitoris, covered by its prepuce, lies in the middle line and at the apex of the smooth piece of mucous membrane known as the vestibule. Only that part analogous to the glans penis is seen (fig. 1, d). The clitoris proper consists of two crura which arise from the rami of the ischium and pubis and unite superiorly to form the body of the clitoris, which lies beneath the mucous membrane. The glans clitoridis is not directly continuous with the body, but joins it through the pars inter- media of the bulb (vide post, p. 10). The Vestibule (fig. 1. e) is a triangular smooth mucous surface bounded superiorly by the clitoris, laterally by the labia minora, and interiorly by the upper margin of the vaginal orifice. In the middle line, at its base, the dimple of the urethral orifice can be distinctly felt 2-2.5 cm. (1 inch) in front of fourchette. Small depressions and mucous glands open on its surface. The Vaginal Orifice lies in the middle line between the base of the vestibule and the fossa navicularis. Its orifice is guarded by the hymen, a thin fold of mucous membrane enclosing some connective tissue,
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