NUMBER OF OVA: ALBINO RAT 455 
and large degenerate follicles is about the same, whether the 
ovaries contain new or old corpora lutea. Although there are 
slight differences before or after puberty, as shown by the 
average values of their numbers—74 and 49, respectively. 
As was mentioned already (p. 444), the number of small de- 
generated follicles shows large fluctuations—between 300 to 900 
—in ovaries without corpora lutea, and thus an accurate deter- 
mination of degenerated small follicles is very difficult. How- 
ever, it seems certain that after puberty the number of degener- 
ated small follicles increases from about 600 to 1400. The ay- 
erage number of fourteen cases before puberty gives 563 small 
follicles, while the average number of seventeen cases after 
puberty is increased to 888. The average number of all thirty- 
TABLE 19 
Numbers of degenerated follicles before and after puberty 
_ a THE PERCENTAGE OF 
MEAN OF THE TOTAL Bee ietebepateeaaee = lacs DEGENERATE 
NUMBER OF OVA eat FOLLICLES TO TOTAL 
INCMEIEHO LENS NUMBER OF OVA 
iBeforemuberty. <1. - sesso: 9380 637 6.79 
AARLer: PUMEEUY Uth.ta 4. ss kaa 5592 933 16.66 
one cases is therefore 740 follicles. To this, the mean number 
of fifty-nine medium and large degenerated follicles are to be 
added, so that we obtain about 800 as the total number. 
In table 19 the proportion of these degenerated follicles to the 
total number of ova is shown. 
It is reasonable to conclude from all the data (tables 2 and 4) 
that before puberty the number of the large degenerate follicles 
is one and a half times that found in the ovaries of rats after 
puberty, while we have already found that the number of small 
degenerate follicles after puberty is one and a half times that 
found before puberty. 
Loeb (’06) described the small follicles as always present after 
either ovulation or the appearance of the corpus luteum. My 
own data, however, show that after puberty, that is after the ap- 
pearance of corpora lutea, the number of small degenerated fol- 
