siXT. 208. j INVESTIGATION OF FEMALE ORGANS. 469 



follicles, and is, therefore, present with the latter from the outset. 

 At any rate, it corresponds to a cell, and the germinal vesicle is 

 nothing but the cell-nucleus; while the thick zona pellucida may 

 be regarded as a secretion from the delicate vitelline membrane in 

 its primitive stage. 



The secretions of the female genitals, apart from those of the ovary, are : 

 1. a whitish nmcus in the uterus, which probably conies in the main from 

 the uterine glands, and has an alkaline reaction ; 2. a transparent tenacious 

 alkaline mucus in the cervix uteri (see supra); 3. an acid mucus in the 

 vagina, which very often contains pus corpuscles, an infusorium, named by 

 Donne the trichomonas vaginalis, and a fungus, the leptothrix buccalis, Rob. ; 

 +. the clear viscid secretion of the Bartholinian glands, which is discharged 

 111 large quantity during copulation, and on irritation has been seen to escape 

 even in jets, from the action of the muscular fibres in the ducts ; 5. the 

 secretions of the small sebaceous and mucous glands of the external parts. 



Investigation of the Female Organs of Generation.— The Graafian follicles 

 are to be examined in as fresh a state as possible, if it be desired to see the 

 membrana granulosa and the ova in their natural conditions. In follicles 

 that have been kept, the epithelial layer swims in flakes in the liquor foU 

 liculi, and the germinal eminence is generally also destroyed. The position 

 of the ovulum can be recognised in certain animals, as in the bitch, for 

 example, even before the follicle is opened : in order to obtain the ovulum 

 with certainty, a large follicle, which has been carefully dissected out, is to 

 be opened under water, and the larger flakes which escape are to be examined 

 with a low magnifying power ; but the ovum may also be readily fouml 

 when the contents of a follicle are received upon the object-slide of the 

 microscope. One may also be obtained by cutting across or teasing out the 

 ovary, but this is not exactly a method to be recommended. The muscular 

 fibres of the Fallopian tubes, of the uterus, vagina, etc., are to be examined 

 by careful dissection, as also in fine sections of the hardened parts. Kasper 

 recommends that the uterus should be boiled for three minutes in water, 

 and then be laid for twenty-four hours in a most concentrated solution of 

 carbonate of potass, or that it should be treated with pyroligneous acid, and 

 the sections moistened with diluted acetic acid; whilst Schwartz and 

 Reichert dry the uterus which has been hardened in alcohol, and render the 

 muscular fibres distinct by allowing nitric acid of 20 per cent, to act upon 

 them for a short time. The method also which Wlttieh employs in the 

 examination of the kidneys (p. 419) is, according to Gerlaeh, useful in the 

 of the uterus. The contractile fibre-cells are nowhere to be seen more 

 beautifully than in the pregnant uterus, whilst the uterine glands are best 

 marked in menstruating females, and in the first month after conception. 

 The ciliated epithelium is seen only in perfectly fresh objects, and best of 

 all m the Fallopian tubes; the cells without cilia are easy of observation. 

 The preparation of the external parts presents no difficulties, and the rules 

 which have been previously given, hold good for the glands, nerves, papilla 

 and epithelium. ' 



Literature.— C. E. v. Baer, De Ovi Mammalium et Hominis Genesi, epist., 

 Lips., 1827; and Commentarius. Coste, Recherches sur la Generation del 



