A handbook of diseases of women : including diseases of the bladder and urethra / by F. Winckel ; authorised translation edited by Theophilus Parvin.

Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A handbook of diseases of women : including diseases of the bladder and urethra / by F. Winckel ; authorised translation edited by Theophilus Parvin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    31/792 (page 19)
    At this time epithelial cells cause the clitoris and prepuce, as well as the glaus penis and prepuce in the male, to be adherent. The orifices of the glands of Bartholin may already be distin- guished, opening into the vestibule one millimeter, or-^g- of an inch, above the lower end of the uro-genital sinus, and one millimeter below the origin of the vagina and hymen. The glands them- selves, which are either oval or round, and one or more millime- ters in diameter, show well-formed glandular acini, and mucus may be found both in them and in their ducts, from which it is evident that they begin to furnish their peculiar secretion even at this early date.* In place of this normal development of the external sexual organs, the following malformations may occur:— I. If the genital fissure is not formed the skin remains entire, and the vulva is absent, defectus vulvae or atresia totalis. In this case, neither the ends of the ureters, the seminal glands, nor the intestinal canal, have an external opening ; the rectum, bladder, and genital canal may communicate internally,f or the intestine and bladder may remain separate, the seminal glands opening into the latter. Instances of this malformation have only been found in non- viable, immature births; several illustrations have been given by Foerster,! some showing not the slightest trace of a vulva, as in the acephalus sympus; § others only a small pedunculated appendage, as occurs especially in the sirenian malformation. II. If, after the formation of the cloaca, the septum between the bladder and intestine, which forms the perineum and which draws the vagina down with it, does not grow downward, the cloaca becomes permanent; then the intestine, the end of the urachus, and the seminal glands empty into a common canal. This condition has been called atresia ani vaginalis, but incor- rectly, because the intestine does not end in the vagina, the latter beginning at a considerable distance above its lower opening. III. If the uro-genital sinus remains very long and narrow, not being shortened by the descent of the united ducts of Miiller, * R. Geigel. % Atlas, plates ix and x. f Olshausen's Case, Archiv, n, p. 280. £ Plate ix, Fig. G.