The Works of William Harvey M.D.: Translated from the Latin with a life of the authorHarvey, William
Science
The Works of William Harvey M.D.: Translated from the Latin with a life of the author
Harvey, William
Blood -- Circulation -- Early works to 1800; Embryology -- Early works to 1800; Physiology -- Early works to 1800
The uterus and the processus uteri are connected with the back by means
of a membranous attachment, which Fabricius designates by the name of
“mesometrium; because the second uterus, together with this vascular and
membranous body, may very fairly be compared with the intestines and
the mesentery.” For, as the intestine is bound down by the mesentery, so
is this portion of the uterus attached to the spinal column by an oblong
membranous process; lest by being too loose, and getting twisted, the
passage of the yelks should be interfered with, instead of having a free
and open transit afforded them as at present. The mesometrium also
transmits numerous blood-vessels surcharged with blood, to each of the
folds of the uterus. In its origin, substance, structure, use, and
office, this part is therefore analogous to the mesentery. Moreover,
from the fundus of the uterus lengthwise, and extending even to the
infundibulum, there is a ligament bearing some resemblance to a
tape-worm, similar to that which we notice in the upper part of the
colon. It is as if a certain portion or stripe of the external tunic had
been condensed and shortened in such a manner that the rest of the
process is thrown into folds and cells: were you to draw a thread
through a piece of intestine taken out of the body, and to tie this
thread firmly on one side, you would cause the other side of the bowel
to pucker up into wrinkles and cells; [even so is it with the uterus of
the fowl.]
This then, in brief, is the structure of the uterus in the fowl that is
laying eggs: fleshy, large, extensible both longitudinally and
transversely, tortuous or winding in spirals and convolutions from the
cloaca upwards, in the line of the vertebral column, and continued into
the infundibulum.
EXERCISE THE NINTH.
_Of the extrusion of the egg, or parturition of the fowl, in general._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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