AUTHOR’S ABSTRACT OF THIS PAPER ISSUED 
BY THE BIBLIOGRAPHIC SERVICE, MAY 22 
CHANGES IN THE VAGINAL EPITHELIUM OF THE 
GUINEA-PIG DURING THE OESTROUS CYCLE 
RAYMOND M. SELLE 
THREE PLATES (ELEVEN FIGURES) 
INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE 
The last few years have witnessed a considerable advance in 
our knowledge of the cyclical changes in the reproductive organs 
of the mammalian female, chiefly as the result of the introduction 
of a new method by Stockard and Papanicolaou; a method by 
which the course of the cycle may be followed in the living animal. 
The results obtained during the preceding years involved the 
sacrifice of animals at various times with relation to some definite 
event such as parturition or heat (when the latter is easily de- 
termined) and the microscopic study of sections. Obviously, it 
was not possible to study successive cycles in the same animal. 
Nevertheless, data of some importance have been accumulated 
from the time of Lataste, Morau, and Retterer to the present. 
Since the literature of the period is dealt with more completely 
by Long and Evans (’22), it is unnecessary here to do more than 
eall attention to those papers dealing more directly with the 
guinea-pig and the development of the method. 
As early as 1892, Retterer observed that regular changes 
occurred in the vaginal mucosa of non-pregnant guinea-pigs. 
Following ‘parturition he killed animals at regular intervals and 
was the first to describe a stratum cornium in the guinea-pig, 
although such a layer had been described in mice by Morau in 
1889. He found that on the fifteenth day postpartum a layer of 
cornified cells was beginning to form under the superficial layers 
of the stratified vaginal mucosa. 
In a number of papers Leo Loeb reported his results on the 
study of ovulation and the formation of corpora lutea in guinea- 
pigs. He came to the conclusion that it recurred at intervals of 
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THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ANATOMY, VOL. 30, No. 4 
