Cases of stenosis and atresia of the female genital canal / by James R. Chadwick.

  • Chadwick, James R. (James Read), 1844-1905.
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cases of stenosis and atresia of the female genital canal / by James R. Chadwick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    SEVEN CASES OF CONGENITAL AND ONE OF TRAUMATIC STENOSIS OR ATRESIA OF THE FEMALE GENITAL CANAL.1 BY JAMES R. CHADWICK, M.D., BOSTON. Before entering upon the relation of my cases, 1 would briefly remind you that along the outer border of each Wolffian body appears, between the fifth and sixth weeks of embryonic life in the female, a band, at first solid, but later hollow, which is known as the duct of Muller. This duct descends on each side to open into the cloaca, in which likewise terminate the rectum posteriorly and the bladder anteriorly. The two ducts of Muller, as they descend, are opposed to each other longitudinally like a double-barreled gun; the contiguous walls are absorbed so that a single canal results, from which are later differentiated the vagina and uterus. The upper segments of the ori- ginal ducts become ultimately the Fallopian tubes. The cloaca is subsequently divided by two septa, so that it consists of three distinct cavities corresponding to the bladder, vagina and rectum. Meanwhile the external genital organs have been developing indepen- dently with depressions corresponding to the divisions of the cloaca within. The septa intervening between the external depressions and the internal cloacae are absorbed and the bladder, vagina and rectum thus ac- quire their external openings. An arrest of this ab- sorptive process is manifest in two of the most com- mon forms of iinperforation, atresia ani, and an imper- forate hymen. In fixing our attention upon the genital tract exclu- 1 Read at tlie Annual Meeting of the Suffolk District Medical Soci- ety, April 24th, 1886.