360 B. F. KINGSBURY 



introduce a discussion of their interpretation and significance. 

 Reference is simply made to the excellent discussion of von Wini- 

 warter and Sainmont (p. 67). 'Those investigators who accept a 

 definite cell-lineage for the germ cells, strongly suggested by the 

 observations of Allen ('11), Rubaschkin ('09, '11) Wood, Dodds, 

 and others, may interpret them as unproductive side lines of the 

 germ-track or as a more or less temporary hypertrophy, for un- 

 known reasons of 'indifferent cells' cells, as accepted by von 

 Winiwarter and Sainmont, who believe that they subsequently 

 return to normal size. Upon a purely physiologic or process 

 interpretation, however, these cells might still be grouped with 

 the germ cells as an expression of the oogenetic processes at work 

 in the developing ovary. 



The period of the postpartum growth leading up to the appear- 

 ance of medullary follicles and their growth is a critical one in 

 the theoretical interpretation of the morphology. The primi- 

 tive cortex and medulla become accentuated and extended. The 

 ovary in the first five weeks quite doubles its diameter. The 

 stroma ovarii continues its obvious growth activity. The in- 

 crease in the epithelioid cords and their morphological trans- 

 formations furnish the characteristic feature of this period. They 

 increase in bulk and while very irregular in contour often assume 

 a more tubular form. Their cells increase in size and by their 

 arrangement assume a form more characteristically epithelial, 

 as about a potential lumen. Their nuclei he more peripherally 

 and the inner ends of the cells are more elongated, vacuolar and 

 reticulate. Abundant 'mitochondrial' substance is present here. 

 The structural appearance in such cases forces a comparison with 

 the tubules of the testis, and the comparison becomes enhanced 

 by the relation of the cell cords within the medulla of the ovary 

 to the rete. The resemblance to the tubules of the undifferen- 

 tiated embryonic testis, or more closely to the tubules of the cryp- 

 torchid is particularly striking, von Winiwarter and Sainmont 

 ( '08) have called attention to this resemblance of the medullary 

 cords to the tubules of the testis, as the former ('00) had pre- 

 viously done in his paper on the development of the rabbit's ovary, 

 and as several have done in a comparison of the ovarian medulla 



