236 PROGRESS OF MICROSCOPICAL SCIENCE. 



scribed in extenso as the amoeboid cell wbich inhabits the mucus of 

 tbe cells or internodes of tbe Bombay great Nitella. But there are no 

 people in England, if on the Continent, who seem to be able to show 

 this, if even they be cognizant of it. Ex oriente lux used to be the old 

 phrase ; the light is now being reflected back from America. It is 

 from there that we must expect novelties now." 



The Anatomy of tlie Graafian Follicles in Man. — These have been 

 very fully explained by Dr. Kronid Slavjansky in Virchow's ' Archiv,'* 

 and are well abstracted by the ' Lancet ' in a late leader. The 

 author's observations have been made on subjects of all ages brought 

 to the Anatomical and Pathological Institute of the Medico-Chirurgical 

 Academy of St. Petersburgh. The preparations were macerated imme- 

 diately after removal from the body (which was usually effected in from 

 three to eight hours after death) for a week or a fortnight in Muller's 

 fluid, then placed in a 70 per cent, solution of spii'its of wine, and then 

 in a 90 per cent., after which fine sections were made. In the exami- 

 nation of the ovaries of children he recognizes three forms of follicles 

 — (1) primordial follicles, which are the youngest ; (2) a transitional 

 form to the mature follicles ; and (3) more or less developed mature 

 Graafian follicles. 



The primordial follicles are of roundish or elliptic form. They 

 consist of the primordial egg, with the yelk, the germinal vesicle, and 

 germinal spot surrounded by a series of small round cells in contact 

 with one another, and without any intermediate substance. In very 

 young follicles a spot can always be found where these cell-series are 

 interrupted, and where the egg apparently is in dii'ect contact with 

 the waU of the follicle. This is the follicle-pole of Pfliiger. At a 

 subsequent period this spot is covered by a layer of cells. The wall 

 of the follicle presents no characters distinguishing it from other parts 

 of the ordinary stroma of the ovary. On its inner surface, however, 

 he admits the presence of a lustrous layer, similar to that found in 

 acinous glands, in which sometimes a few fusiform cells may be dis- 

 covered, and thus differs from Waldeyer, who in his description of the 

 structure of the primordial follicles states that they are destitute of a 

 membrana propria, and that the stroma tissue lies in immediate contact 

 with the contents of the follicle, the fibres being arranged circularly 

 around it. Thus it appears that in the very youngest follicles tlie egg 

 is siu-rounded by a series of epithelial cells representing the future 

 membrana gi-anulosa. The delicacy and instability of these cells 

 explain the circumstance of theii- being denied by Klebs, Schron, and 

 Florinsky. Such follicles as those that have just been described may 

 be seen in certain parts of the ovary, at every age from the eleventh 

 week of intra-uterine life to the grand climacteric. In embryos they 

 are usually found between the cortical and medullary layers ; in new- 

 born children they are found in all parts; in adults they are met 

 with only in the most superficial layers of the cortex, where they are 

 closely packed, and when badly prei)ared, in consequence of the 

 destruction of the epithelimn, look like rows of large cells from which, 

 near the centre of the ovary, the follicles appear to develop. Slav- 

 jansky accepts and corroborates Waldcyer's description of the origin 

 * Ban.l .51, TIeft. 4. 



