ORIGIN OF THE CORPUS LUTEUM 123 



origin of the lutein tissue. The value of his results with the 

 pig will be discussed below; Sobotta has presented directly op- 

 posite evidence and a vigorous criticism with regard to his work 

 on the guinea-pig ('07). 



The contributions of Pottet ('10) on the human corpus luteum 

 and Delestre ('10) on that of the cow are based on evidence which 

 can hardly be considered conclusive. Delestre had no bovine cor- 

 pora lutea of pregnancy at an earlier stage than two and a half 

 months. He had twelve corpora lutea from non-pregnant animals, 

 four of which he thought to be in the first stages of formation, 

 but there was no effort, by observing the animals alive or by 

 searching for the ova, to determine that ovulation had actually 

 been recent. Pottet studied twenty-two human corpora lutea 

 of pregnancy, the youngest already six weeks old. Both of these 

 authors speak for the degeneration of the granulosa before 

 rupture. 



We cannot judge the work upon the human ovary very criti- 

 cally until the relation of ovulation to menstruation is better 

 known or some other method of estimating the age of young 

 human corpora lutea and of obtaining really young specimens is 

 at hand. Buhler ('00) collected ovaries of rabbits according to 

 Sobotta's methods, but found the distinction between theca and 

 granulosa so difficult that he turned to the human corpus luteum. 

 The only specimen of importance described by him is one from 

 an operative case, without menstrual history or other means of 

 estimating its age, except that it showed a point of rupture in 

 process of healing (see below, p. 179, as to the possibility of error on 

 this point) . In this supposedly early corpus luteum the granulosa 

 is degenerating and a 'typical lutein tissue' appearing in the place 

 of the theca interna. Cristalli ('03), a pupil of Paladino, whose 

 peculiar views will be quoted below, believes also in the total 

 degeneration of the granulosa layer before rupture, but gives no 

 data as to his specimens. Teacher, in discussing the Teacher- 

 Bryce-Kerr case of early ovarian pregnancy ('08), states that he 

 had been studying corpus luteum formation in the human, and 

 interprets his preparations to indicate quite clearly that "what- 

 ever the source of the cells (of the corpus luteum) may be in the 



