. A system of midwifery, including the diseases of pregnancy and the puerperal state. se, is perfectlysmooth. In these circumstances, theaperture is closed, but the depressionbetween the lips is easily felt, and isprecisely similar, in the impression itcommunicates to the finger, to the sen-sation experienced when the finger isapplied to the tip of the nose. In thiscase the cartilages represent the firmtissue of the lips, while the vertical in-terval between them corresponds to thetransverse slit which constitutes the os. The characteristics above described are those of the virgin, or, asDr. T
. A system of midwifery, including the diseases of pregnancy and the puerperal state. se, is perfectlysmooth. In these circumstances, theaperture is closed, but the depressionbetween the lips is easily felt, and isprecisely similar, in the impression itcommunicates to the finger, to the sen-sation experienced when the finger isapplied to the tip of the nose. In thiscase the cartilages represent the firmtissue of the lips, while the vertical in-terval between them corresponds to thetransverse slit which constitutes the os. The characteristics above described are those of the virgin, or, asDr. Tyler Smith more correctly calls it, the nulliparous pregnancy, the organ is enormously distended, and the ana-tomical relations of the contiguous parts are greatly disturbed. Afterdelivery, the parts contract, and regain in a great measure their originalappearance and condition, but they nevertheless retain features of dis-similarity which generally enable the observer, on a careful examina-tion, to distinguish the uterus of a woman who has been a mother. The 62 FEMALE ORGANS OF GENERATION. [CHAP. chief points of distinction are as follows : The weight of the organ isincreased, according to Meckel, to about an ounce and a half; thefundus and body are rounded externally; the cavity of the body losesits triangular shape, and becomes much larger relatively to the cervix,the os internum being agape. The arborescent folds of the cervix arein a great measure obliterated, or at least are rendered indistinct, andthe os externum is patent. The differences in the latter are, from thefact of its being of easy access to the finger, of special importance, andconsist mainly in an enlargement of the parts, and an irregularity inthe surface of the lips, which are now no longer smooth, but puckeredround the edge of the os, and often nodulated on the surface. Theseirregularities are due to slight lacerations of tissue which occur duringdelivery. They are always more marked
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectobstetrics, bookyear1
