ORGANS OF INTERNAL SECRETION 347 



Bond * has put forward the view that the ovarian secretion 

 is influenced by a saline secretion from the ancestrous uterus, 

 the two, however, acting antagonistically to one another, so 

 that the prevention of the uterine secretion by hysterectomy 

 favours the hypertrophy of the ovaries. Bond's view, therefore, 

 is diametrically opposed to that of Blair Bell. 



Bond records two experiments on the results of hysterectomy 

 in rabbits. In one the entire uterus was removed and the 

 animal killed after five months. Both ovaries were found to 

 be normal. In the other experiment the left uterine cornua 

 only was extirpated, and the rabbit was killed after five months. 

 In this case also the ovaries showed no signs of degeneration. 

 As a result of these experiments Bond affirms that the pre- 

 vention of the saline secretion of the uterine mucosa by previous 

 hysterectomy favours the overgrowth of luteal tissue in the ovary. 



Stress has been laid by various writers upon the well-known 

 fact that whereas the corpora lutea of the ovary continue to 

 grow for a considerable period of time if pregnancy supervenes 

 after ovulation, this hypertrophy soon ceases in the absence of 

 pregnancy. Bond records an experiment upon a rabbit in 

 which one of the ovaries, after transplantation in an abnormal 

 position, was found to contain a somewhat aberrant " corpus 

 luteum of pregnancy " in association with a gravid uterus. 

 Such observations are regarded by him as supplying evidence 

 of an internal uterine secretion acting on the ovaries and so 

 exciting a growth of luteal tissue. This secretion is supposed 

 by Bond to be quite different from the saline fluid elaborated 

 by the anrestrous uterus. 2 It must be remembered, however, 

 that pregnancy produces a profound influence over the entire 

 organism, and not merely over the ovaries. 



Certain other authors, such as Loewenthal, 3 have suggested 

 theories which imply a dependence on the part of the ovaries 

 upon some function of the uterus ; but, excepting for the 

 two experiments of Bond referred to above, and a series of 



1 Bond, " Some Points in Uterine and Ovarian Physiology and Pathology 

 in Rabbits," British Med. Jour., Part II., July 1906. 



2 Bond, " Certain Undescribed Features in the Secretory Activity of the 

 Uterus and Fallopian Tubes," Jour. Phys., vol. xxii., 1898. 



3 Loewenthal, "Eine neue Deutung des Menstruationprocess," Arch. f. 

 Qyndk., vol. xxiv., 1884. 



