The parts must be carefully watched for sloughing. The rim of the cup of the repositor should be covered with lint saturated with carbolized oil. The instrument should be removed and reapplied every day. The direction of pressure may be regulated by the tension of the elastic bands. Splitting the posterior lip of the cervix is sometimes a useful procedure in cases that have resisted other treatment. The cervix is split in the median line posteriorly; the body and fundus are replaced by taxis, and the incision is then closed by suture. If inversion accompany a uterine polyp, the tumor should be removed; and if the inversion is not spontaneously corrected, it must be reduced. If, after careful trial of conservative methods, reduction of an inverted uterus is found to be impossible, the physician may be compelled to amputate the inverted portion or perform hysterectomy. CHAPTER XXIV. DISEASES OF THE FALLOPIAN TUBES. The review of a few facts about the anatomy of the Fallopian tubes will assist in the study of the diseases that affect these structures. The average length of the normal Fallopian tube is 4 inches (10 centimeters). The tubes are often of unequal length, the difference sometimes being equal to 1 centimeter. The length of the Fallopian tube is subject to considerable variation, and in some forms of ovarian disease the length of the tube may be very much increased. The uterine end of the tube varies in thickness from 2 to 4 millimeters. The outer end varies from 7 to 10 millimeters in thickness. The narrow uterine end of the tube is called the isthmus. The outer end, of trumpet-shape, is called the ampulla. The canal of the tube is small. At the uterine end, or ostium internum, it will barely admit a bristle. Beyond the middle of the tube the canal gradually widens to the outer opening--the ostium abdominale. The ostium abdominale is surrounded by peculiar luxuriant folds of mucous membrane called fimbriæ. The fimbriæ are formed by the outward bulging of the exuberant mucous membrane. The Fallopian tube consists of three coats, the peritoneal, the muscular, and the mucous. The peritoneal coat, which invests the tube for two-thirds of its circumference, is formed by the free border of the broad ligament, between the folds of which the Fallopian tube lies. Loose connective tissue attaches the peritoneal to the middle or muscular coat. The muscular coat consists of unstriped muscular fiber which is continuous with that of the uterus. The muscular fibers are arranged in two layers, an outer longitudinal and an inner circular layer. The inner or mucous coat, which is continuous with the mucous membrane of the uterus, is covered with columnar ciliated epithelium. [Illustration: FIG. 142.--Section of the normal Fallopian tube near the uterine cornu (Beyea).]