CORPUS LUTEUM. 309 



yellowish pigmentary matter. The thickness of the wall is 

 about one-eighth of an inch, at its deepest portion. 



After about the third week, the corpus luteum begins to 

 retract ; its central portion and the convoluted wall become 

 paler, and, at the end of seven or eight weeks, a small cica- 

 trix marks the point of rupture of the follicle. 



The above are the changes which occur in the Graafian 

 follicles after their rupture and the discharge of ova, when 

 the ova have not been fecundated ; and the bodies thus 

 produced are called false corpora lutea, as distinguished from 

 corpora lutea found after conception, which are called true 

 corpora lutea. 



Corpus Luteum of Pregnancy. Before the process of 

 spontaneous ovulation and its connection with menstruation 

 were understood, anatomists were unable to make a definite 

 distinction between the corpus luteum following the dis- 

 charge of an ovum without fecundation, called the corpus 

 luteum of menstruation, and the corpus luteum of preg- 

 nancy. Huschke, however, as early as 1845, recognized the 

 distinction between the false and the true corpora lutea. He 

 states that, " after fecundation they develop in a more rapid 

 manner, and assume the form of true corpora lutea ; " and 

 farther, he says that " corpora lutea are also produced, with- 

 out fecundation, to which the name false has been given." l 

 Notwithstanding that the so-called true and false corpora 

 lutea seem to have been well recognized, even by writers an- 

 terior to Huschke, 3 it remained for Coste to exactly describe 

 the various points of distinction between them ; and his ac- 

 count of the differences in the development of these bodies, de- 

 pendent upon the non-fecundation or the fecundation of the 



1 HUSCHKE, Traite de splanchnologie. Encyclopedic anatomique, Paris, 1845, 

 tome v., p. 427. 



8 Bischoff, as well as other writers of his time, frequently referred to true 

 and false corpora lutea. ( Observations sur le detacJiement et la fecondation de 

 Vozuf humain et des oeufs des mammiferes. Annales des sciences naturelles, Zoo- 

 logie, Paris, 1843, seconde s6rie, tome xx., p. 93, et seq.) 



