152 W. H. LONGLEY 



are both indications that degeneration of the folUcle and its con- 

 tents is in active progress. In connection with the discharge 

 of this complete folUcle it is interesting to note that in various 

 corpora lutea small follicles have been noted whose connection 

 with the stroma has been severed. They lay as a result completely 

 surrounded by the cells of the corpus luteum, and suggest the 

 possibility that the condition above described is not unique. 



The second case is not so clearly defined. In a certain ovary 

 there were four ruptured follicles, and four tube eggs were found, 

 three of which were in the two-cell stage, while the fourth pos- 

 sessed a germinal vesicle. In order to escape the conclusion that 

 a follicle may occasionally become distended with follicular fluid 

 and rupture in the usual way but in advance of the maturation 

 of the egg, one must believe that in this case as well as in the last 

 the egg in question was discharged as a result of a secondary con- 

 dition, the disturbance of equilibrium wdthin the ovary con- 

 sequent upon the rupture of the first follicles to burst. Or pos- 

 sibly of five eggs which may have been discharged one was lost. 

 The immature condition of the egg was indicated by the solid 

 condition and the large mass of the discus proligerus which sur- 

 rounded it. The condensation of the chromatin to form chromo- 

 somes had not begun. Curiously enough, a second ^hialler, more 

 immature egg was embedded in the same fragment, a fact which 

 may or may not be significant, but indicates at least that in a 

 sense the follicle from which these eggs came was abnormal. 



Winiwarter and Saintmont ('08) note in a cursory way that 

 certain facts have suggested to them that there may be a regular 

 alternation in the functioning of the ovaries. Since the average 

 activity of right and left ovary is the same and there are many 

 more cases of unequal than equal activity at any specified ovula- 

 tion, it would seem at first sight as though there might be some 

 foundation for the idea. But when one considers the cases in 

 which the total number of eggs discharged at one ovulation is 

 even, it appears that in one-third of the cases they are derived 

 in equal numbers from each ovary, and that in half the 

 remaining cases the right contributes more than the left, and 

 Dice versa. This is so near the result one should expect from a 



