FECUNDITY. 121 



overcharged with fatty matter that impregnation was 

 rendered impossible. 



" In other cases the ovaries were in an unhealthy 

 condition, either one or both having, to a great extent, 

 wasted away. Sometimes one of the ovaries had been 

 suffering from atrophy, and the other in such an irri- 

 table and sensitive condition that it might be almost 

 described as inflamed, and under such circumstances 

 the formation of a healthy ovum could be scarcely ex- 

 pected. In other instances the ovaries had become 

 considerably enlarged, in consequence of a fatty de- 

 generation of these organs having taken place." ' 



It is to be regretted that the condition of these 

 animals, in regard to fattening tendency and constitu- 

 tional peculiarities, is not given in the above cases, as 

 it would aid us in determining the cause of the ob- 

 served pathological conditions. Of the cases of bar- 

 ren females that I have had an opportunity to investi- 

 gate, the defect was attributable, in about equal pro- 

 portions, to fatty degeneration of the ovaries, scrofu- 

 lous tumors of the ovaries, and congestion and chronic 

 inflammation of the uterus and its appendages all of 

 which were apparently the result of an excessive de- 

 velopment of the tendency to fatten. 



When the fatty degeneration, or the scrofulous 

 tumors, were confined to one ovary, its fellow was 

 usually the seat of congestion or chronic inflammation, 

 and thus unfitted to develop a healthy ovum. 



From the correlated relations of the functions of 

 nutrition and reproduction, it will be seen that great 

 activity of the fat-producing functions, even when not 



1 Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, 1865, p. 266. 



