352 



HISTOLOGY 



by simple epithelium; they remain in the adult and may become cystic. 

 Sexual cells disappear from the cords in the central part of the ovary, 

 which becomes filled with vascular connective tissue and forms the medulla 

 in the adult. The peripheral part of the ovary, or cortex, contains great 

 numbers of sexual cells, which instead of being lodged in tubules as in 

 the testis, are arranged in small groups surrounded by indifferent cells. 

 The entire structures are primary follicles, and they are imbedded in a 

 stroma likewise derived from the peritoneum. Felix considers that the 



follicles develop, for the most part at 

 least, directly from the tissue of the 

 genital ridge, and states that tubes or 

 cords growing in from the peritoneal 

 epithelium, as described by Pfliiger, do 

 not exist in the human ovary. Gener- 

 ally it has been said that the primary 

 follicles arise by the subdivision of such 

 cords (Fig. 354). 



Ligaments. As the Miillerian ducts 

 come together below, they occupy ridges 

 FIG. 354SECTioN OF THE OVARY AT BIRTH, covered with peritoneum. These ridges 

 .. Epithelium; STSSSw cord; c, sexual coalesce so as to form a partition which 

 cfes : : f aH^feS'fahS^^wSS crosses the pelvis from side to side and 



rises upward from its floor. Ventral to 



the partition is the bladder, separated from it by the vesico-uterine pouch; 

 dorsal to it is the rectum, separated by the deeper recto-uterine pouch; 

 and within it are the uterus and tubes. In the adult these folds of peri- 

 toneum extending laterally from the uterus constitute its broad ligaments. 

 The Wolffian bodies and ovaries, which at first occupy vertical ridges on 

 either side of the root of the mesentery, appear to slip down or descend 

 into the interior of the broad ligaments, from the dorsal surfaces of which 

 the ovaries later project. 



Above each ovary there is a band of fibrous tissue which extends to 

 the orifice of the tube, and running along this band there is a fimbria known 

 as the fimbria ovarica; this arrangement apparently serves to keep the 

 orifice of the tube in close relation with the ovary. Below the ovary, 

 between the laminae of the broad ligament, a cord of fibrous tissue 

 passes from it to the musculature of the uterus, lying just below the 

 uterine tubes; this is the ovarian ligament. The round ligaments start 

 from the uterine musculature not far from the ends of the ovarian 

 ligaments. They pass downward, one on either side within the broad 

 ligament, and terminate in the folds which correspond with those of the 

 scrotum. The ovarian and round ligaments are believed to be subdivi- 

 sions of a single structure equivalent to the gubernaculum testis. 



