THE FUNCTION OF THE OVARY 213 
while at the present time one of the foremost gynecol- 
ogists in the country is claiming good results from 
ovarian residue—that portion of the ovarian stroma 
which remains after the corpora lutea are all ablated. 
One thing can be said positively: preparations of ova- 
rian residue retain their therapeutic activity longer 
and under more adverse conditions than preparations 
of or containing corpus luteum. 
The fact that our exact knowledge of ovarian func- 
tion is very limited does not prevent cases of dis- 
turbed function being widespread. And every prac- 
titioner meets them daily. Whether he recognizes them 
as such, or not, is an entirely different question. For 
this reason, I have attempted to present in a brief 
way the few facts that are definitely known concern- 
ing the ovary and its relations to the other endocrine 
glands, citing a personal case now and then for em- 
phasis. 
“The ovary governs all the important physiological 
activities of the sexual organs. It contains a portion 
whose secretion is external and upon which devolves 
the perpetuation of the race (ova) and an internal 
secretory apparatus (follicles, corpus luteum or in- 
terstitial gland), which exerts important influences 
upon the entire organism.” ? 
The internal secretion of the ovary has never been 
isolated. Evidence that it exists rests upon the results 
of its extirpation and destruction experiments in ani- 
mals and, to a less extent, upon clinical observations. 
These latter—so far as woman is concerned—have to 
do with observations following removal of the ovary, 
histological examinations after the menopause, and 
the results of transplanting ovaries or feeding various 
ovarian preparations. Quite naturally, there has re- 
sulted a number of divergent views and different the- 
ories as to the function of the ovary and its various 
components. 
