The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English: or, Medicine Simplified, 54th ed., One Million, Six Hundred; and Fifty Thousand
John Stuart Mill · en
Since in the beginning God created male and female, and said unto them,
"Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth," it is evident that
what was originated by creation must be continued by procreation. The
process of generation the reader will find described on pages 12 and 13.
Then commences a wonderful series of transforming operations,
rudimentary changes preliminary to the formation of tissues, structures
and functions, which finally qualify the organism for independent
existence. The ovum, when expelled from the ovary, enters the
fimbriated, or fringe-like extremity of the Fallopian tube, to commence
at once its descent to the uterus. The process of passing through this
minute tube varies in different animals. In birds and reptiles, the bulk
of the expelled ova is so great as to completely fill up the tube, and
it is assisted in its downward course, partly by its own weight and
partly by the peristaltic action of the muscular coat of the canal. In
the human subject, however, the ova are so minute that nature has
supplied a special agent for their direct transmission; otherwise they
might be retained, and not reach their destination. Accordingly, the
fimbriated, trumpet-shaped extremity of the Fallopian tubes, which is
nearest to the ovaries, and, consequently from the ovary first receives
the ovum when expelled; is provided with a series of small hairs, termed
_cilia_, forming the lining or basement membrane of the tubes, and, the
movements of these cilia being towards the uterus, transmit, by their
vibrating motion, the ovum from the ovary, through the Fallopian tubes,
to the uterus.