INTERNAL SECRETION OF OVARY 



^25 



second, these cells remain to a great extent as they were origin- 

 ally formed (Fig. 96), without tendency to such a confluence 

 as occurs in the rat or rabbit. It is of considerable interest tp 

 note that according to Salazar (1922) there are even in the; 

 ovary of the rabbit some follicles which do not lose their in- 

 dividual existence when becoming atretic, and which do not 

 form directly part of the interstitial tissue. These atretic 



Fig. 104. — Section through ovary oj white rat, 62 

 days old. x 90. Fix. by Flemming, treated by 

 osmic acid, not stained. Atretic follicles 

 surrounded by connective tissue ; theca cells 

 filled with fat. At different places follicles 

 transformed into cords of interstitial cells.^ — 

 From Limon. 



folhcles remain for a certain time surrounded by a connective 

 tissue capsule even thicker than that of a true corpus luteum ; 

 afterwards they undergo fatty degeneration and sclerotization. 

 The state of the ovary in man is different from that in the rat 

 or rabbit, since in the former the greater number of the cells 

 of the theca interna, after having been transformed into 

 epitheUoid cells, undergo degeneration and disappear. It may 

 be that some of these cells are transformed again into spindle- 

 shaped connective cells. 



