INTERNAL SECRETION OF OVARY 213 



to this age the stroma consists mostly of connective tissue cells 

 {Figs. 99 A, 100; see also Figs. 102-103) and later of cells, 

 having a spherical nucleus and a small quantity of protoplasm. 

 Afterwards the ovary becomes transformed, long before 

 corpora lutea appear, into an organ consisting almost entirely 

 of interstitial cells, surrounded on the surface by a layer of 

 follicles in different stages of development. That the number 

 and the condition of the interstitial cells depend on the 

 age of the animal was emphasized especially by Aschner 







Int. c. — -^— - r* -' "■ ^^^""^^1^-'^ 



Cap. 



% 





^^^3^" 



^~'^- 



^ 



^ 



Fig. 95. — Section through ovary of rabbit, x i8o. Injection of 

 blood vessels by 1-300 nitrate silver. Impregnated endo- 

 thelial cells of capillariesjwhich are surrounded by interstitial 

 cells. — From Lim.on. 



(1914 c). Employing "Sudan" as a stain for fat, he was able 

 to find interstitial cells in the ovaries of species in which they 

 had not been detected by Fraenkel and Schaeffer, for instance, in 

 the dog and in the cat. Aschner found the interstitial cells 

 well developed before puberty in Rodentia, in the hedgehog, in 

 the bat and in different species of Carnivora. He found that 

 these cells increase in quantity till puberty. When puberty is 

 attained and the first corpus luteum is formed, the space 

 occupied by the interstitial cells is relatively smaller than 

 before, as the corpora lutea now occupy the greater part of the 

 ovary. According to Aschner, the quantity of the interstitial 



