38G THE CORPUS LUTEUM OF DASmii^S, 



smaller than other corpora lutea, but, with this exception, the 

 process is the same. 



The Decline of the Coupus Luteum. 



Thf^ grow til of the corpus luteum in Dasyurus is rapid, and 

 occupies the first three days after the follicular rupture. It 

 remains in the same state for seven to eight weeks and then 

 declines. 



The chief factor in the decline of the corpus luteum is the 

 supervention of a condition of fatty degeneration in its character- 

 istic cells. The degenerated cells are removed hj leucocytes, the 

 blood vessels atrophy, and the connective tissue increases to form 

 a corpus fibrosum, so that by the time the young animal is about 

 ten centimttres long, some four months after its birth, there 

 remains no trace of the corpus luteum in the ovary, which is 

 found to be full of young ova beginning to grow in preparation 

 for the next oestral period. 



The Corpus Luteum of Dasyurus vivERRiyus. 



In the short review of the literature given previously, the two 

 main theories of origin of the corpus luteum were set forth. 

 Some attribute its origin to the theca interna folliculi, others to 

 the membrana granulosa. These divergent views have been taken 

 by different authors for dififerent animals, and in some cases the 

 accounts differ for the same animal. It is worthy of note that 

 those authors who have studied series of ovaries, sufficient to 

 provide all the earl}^ stages of corpus luteum formation, are 

 practically unanimous in contending that the characteristic cells 

 of the corpus luteum take origin from the cells of the membrana 

 granulosa. One of the best known of these is Sobotta, who, in 

 the mouse and rabbit, carried out an exhaustive research on this 

 question, and was the first to lay down the lines along which 

 work to solve this question must be carried out. He is supported 

 byStratz, who in a lengthyarticle, including amongstothers matters 

 the history of the corpus luteum, gave a similar account of its origin 

 founded on a complete study of numerous ovaries of Tujmja 



