308 GENERATION. 



preach to accuracy was given by De Graaf .' After De Graaf , 

 Malpighi described these bodies, and was the first to apply to 

 them the name of corpora lutea. 2 The older writers, how- 

 ever, had no very clear ideas regarding the formation of the 

 corpora lutea, and it is only since we have become familiar 

 with the mechanism of ovulation, that we have been able to 

 comprehend their physiological significance. 



For a certain time anterior to the discharge of the ovum, 

 there is a cell-growth from the proper coat of the Graafian 

 follicle, and probably from the membrana granulosa, with a 

 projection of looped blood-vessels into the interior of the fol- 

 licle, which is the first formation of the corpus luteum. At 

 the time of rupture of the follicle, the ovum, with a great 

 part of the membrana granulosa, is discharged. Sometimes, 

 at the time of rupture of the follicle, there is a discharge of 

 blood into its interior ; but this is not constant, though we 

 usually have a gelatinous exudation, more or less colored with 

 blood. At the same time, the follicular wall undergoes hy- 

 pertrophy, becomes convoluted, or folded, and highly vascu- 

 lar. This convoluted wall, formed by the proper coat of the 

 follicle, is surrounded by the fibrous tunic, and its thickening 

 is most marked at the deepest portion of the follicle. At 

 the end of about three weeks, the body, which is now called 

 the corpus luteum, on account of its yellowish or reddish- 

 yellow color, has arrived at the height of its development, 

 and measures about half an inch in depth by about three- 

 quarters of an inch in length, its form being ovoid. 3 The 

 convoluted wall then contains a layer of large, pale, finely- 

 granular cells, which are internal, and are supposed to be 

 the remains of the epithelium of the follicle. The great 

 mass of this wall, however, is composed of large nucleated 

 cells, containing fatty globules and granules of reddish or 



1 DE GRAAF, De Mulierum Organis Gcnerationi inservientibus, Lugd. Batav., 

 1672, p. 178. 



2 MALPIGHIUS, Opera omnia, Lond., 1687, tomus i., Appendix, 1686, pp. 30, 31. 

 8 DALTOX, Human Physiology, Philadelphia, 1871, p. 598. 



