365 



from the division of one original cell body which may have had two 

 or three nuclei. These two or three nuclei in their turn have resulted 

 from the amitotic division of a single nucleus. His material con- 

 sisted in the ovaries of a nuUiparous woman which contained 

 numerious follicles with two or three eggs. In addition to these 

 the ovaries contained several ova each with two nuclei and in one 

 case an ovum with two nucleoli in a somewhat elongated nucleus. 

 This was taken to indicate the direct division of the nucleus, but 

 this evidence is far from conclusive. 



Kabl (16) although admitting that one egg-cell with several 

 germinal vesicles may give rise to a follicle containing several 

 ovules, does not think that the several germinal vesicles are derived 

 from a single nucleus by direct division. P. and M. Bouin, recording 

 polyovular follicles in the dog (7) state that they have been unable 

 to find any fact in favour of Stoeckel's hypothesis, and they come 

 to the conclusion that such follicles have been produced by the 

 imprisonment of a certain number of oogonia in the conjunctive 

 theca. HoNORE (9) also endorses this opinion and points out how 

 readily the occurrence of polyovular follicles can be explained if 

 one goes back to the early stages of their development. In the 

 embryonic ovary are a number of primordial ova with irregularly 

 disposed epithelial cells among them surrounded by the conjunctive 

 tissue. This tissue afterwards penetrates between the ovules and 

 isolates them together with several epithelial cells. It is easy to see 

 that at this period the conjunctive tissue may fail to isolate the ova 

 and enclose two or more in one theca. 



In the first case of D. viverrinus described above, where the 

 follicles were all biovular and the ova of approximately equal deve- 

 lopment, it is conceivable that they may have arisen by the division 

 of one cell although there is no evidence to show that such is the 

 case. This is not so in the second example of D. viverrinus for it 

 is difficult to think that five ova could have resulted from the 

 divisions of one primordial ovule without finding some indication 

 of division stages in the remaining follicles, and these are entirely 

 absent. Still more does this apply to follicles containing even more 

 than five ova, e. g., nine in one follicle in a rabbit (Honoee) and 

 ten in a follicle in a dog (P. & M. Boum). 



Further as Honore pointed out, when the ovules in the same 

 follicle are in different stages of development it is difficult to suppose 



