THfi OVA AND OVARY IN MAN AND OTHER MAMMALIA. 203 



necting link between peritoneal and germ epithelial cor- 

 puscles, we find small groups of round corpuscles apparently 

 consisting of abortive ova. It is only under and in connec- 

 tion with the true germ epithelium that groups of true pri- 

 mordial ova are formed. 



(c.) Thetna?i7ier of Inclusionof the Primordial Ova and Germ 

 Epithelial Corpuscles in the Stroma of the Ovary. — In a sec- 

 tion of the ovary of a human foetus of three and a half months, 

 one sees large strings of connective tissue corpuscles (fig. 1, 

 i,j,2) growing upwards in a radiating manner from the 

 deeper parts of the ovary towards the germ epithelium {h, h). 

 These strings or bundles communicate with each other and 

 form meshes, and in these meshes are round groups of cor- 

 puscles (o, 0, o) which resemble very closely the corpuscles of 

 the germ epithelium {h,h) which invests the ovary. Im- 

 mediately under the germ epithelium such groups of cor- 

 puscles may be seen partially embedded in meshes of the 

 stroma. In the deeper parts of the ovary we find large pri- 

 mordial ova (fig. 2, m, m) lying separate from each other, 

 and in contact with the protoplasm which surrounds the ger- 

 minal vesicle of each are small connective tissue corpuscles 

 {n, n) exactly similar to those which make up the strings or 

 bundles of young tissue in other parts of the ovary. These 

 little connective tissue corpuscles are quite difierent in ap- 

 pearance from the corpuscles of the germ epithelium on the 

 surface of this young ovary, or those imbedded in groups in 

 the stroma. 



The stroma of the human foetal ovary of seven and a half 

 months consists almost entirely of fusiform connective tissue 

 corpuscles, and in a section of such an ovary we find the whole 

 stroma arranged in the form of a mesh- work, in the meshes of 

 which are large and small groups of corpuscles, just as we de- 

 scribed in the case of the ovary of the calf, the kitten, and 

 human foetal ovary of three and a half months. In the bundles 

 of connective tissue corpuscles which (as seen in section) lie 

 between the groups of corpuscles we find blood-vessels, and on 

 close examination it is seen that the walls of such blood-vessels 

 consist of connective tissue corpuscles. Wherever the bun- 

 dles of connective tissue proceed, in the midst of them are 

 blood-vessels. On tracing the bundles of vascular tissue 

 upwards, we find they arch round large and small groups of 

 corpuscles immediately under the germ epithelium, and com- 

 pletely inclose them in meshes. In some situations under 

 the epithelium the connective tissue bundles have not yet 

 grown round the groups of corpuscles, but may be traced up 

 as far as the germ epithelial corpuscles on either side of the 



