THE FEMALE GENERATIVE APPARATUS. 179 



also, a similar destruction takes place in a portion of the 

 follicles. 



Others, on the contrary, meet with a different fate. The 

 ripest follicles, which have reached the surface of the ovary, 

 become ruptured, naturally at the place of the least resist- 

 ance, and, therefore, towards the surface. The follicular fluid 

 with the ovule leaves the organ through the ruptured outlet. 

 The ruptured follicle is transformed into the so-called cor- 

 pus luteum, that is — to express ourselves more intelligibly 

 - — it returns, at last, by a complicated process of cicatriza- 

 tion, to a connective-tissue frame-work substance, leaving no 

 trace. 



In the human female, the follicle normally ruptures at the 

 menstrual period ; in mammalial animals at the period of 

 rutting. 



The ovule, liberated from the ovary and received into the 

 oviduct, there undergoes the familiar segmentation of the en- 

 capsulated cell (p. 15). Without impregnation, however, this 

 multiplying action is soon paralyzed. If the former takes 

 place, the old life is merrily and energetically continued. The 

 encapsulated ovum at last becomes an aggregation of numer- 

 ous small cells. From these living building stones is con- 

 structed the new animal body, somewhat as the architect 

 builds his house with stones. But the latter, the lifeless ones, 

 are brought from all directions, the former are the primitive 

 offspring of a single cell, members of a living family. It is the 

 difference between the living and the lifeless. 



The oviducts, Fallopian tubes, have, beneath the serous 

 covering, longitudinal and transversely arranged smooth 

 muscles. The mucous membrane is glandless,* and projects 

 in a highly developed system of papillae and folds. The in- 

 ner surface is covered by ciliated epithelium. 



During menstruation and pregnancy the womb or uterus 

 undergoes extremely important anatomical transformations. 

 There is scarcely any organ, except the ovary, perhaps, on 



* All attempts to discover nerves here have, thus far, been unsuccessful. 



