150 AY. H. LONGLEY 



conditions in this case do not agree closely with the preceding 

 general description. In this connection several facts should be 

 noticed: (1) Of five other eggs discharged from the same ovary 

 at this period four had been penetrated by spermatozoa. The 

 other was not found. (2) Usually in the cat all eggs discharged 

 at one ovulation are found in approximately the same stage of 

 development. (3) In this case six eggs escaped from a single 

 ovary, whereas the average number is about two, and four the 

 largest number observed by the writer in any other case in the 

 cat. (4) The recently ruptured fohicles which had contained 

 the other eggs conformed to the common type described in the 

 last paragraph. A section of one of them provided the outline 

 for fig. 2. (5) The follicle is a very small one having less than 

 one-eighth the average volume of the other ruptured ones in the 

 same ovary. (6) It is at the very extremity of the ovary. The 

 foregoing data suggest that the rupture of this follicle may have 

 been delayed on account of the unusually large number of the 

 others and the fact that they stood nearer the hilum of the ovary, 

 i.e., in more direct relation to the blood supply. Since the ovary 

 was removed from the body of the animal so soon after the fol- 

 licle discharged its contents its difference in appearance from the 

 others may be, and probably is, due to a considerable extent to 

 lack of time to develop the characteristic appearance of the 

 recently ruptured follicle in this animal. 



Eggs in process of leaving the ovary have been figured by Sob- 

 otta ('95) for the mouse and O. Van der Stricht ('01) in the bat. 

 Martin Barry's ('39) figure and description refer to a rabbit's 

 egg forced from the ovarj^ by artificial pressure. 



Fig. 6 shows the same egg as fig. 7. It was studied and drawn 

 under the binocular microscope after preservation but before 

 being sectioned. The rosette shaped mass near the surface of 

 which the egg is seen to lie is composed only of coagulated fol- 

 licular fluid and extruded granulosa cells. In preservation the 

 delicate texture and high degree of transparency of this matrix 

 in which the egg lies was lost, being replaced by the characteristic 

 opacity of coagulated albumen. The picture is somewhat of a 

 curiosity since no other mammalian egg seems to have been 

 observed under such conditions. 



