872 GENERATION. 



ovary and two in the other ; but there was no trace of ruptured follicles. The other 

 rabbit ceased to be in heat on the fourth day and was killed on the fifth. This animal 

 presented seven distended follicles on one side, and one on the other, but no ruptured 

 follicles. From these and other experiments upon the lower animals, there seems to be 

 no doubt that copulation hastens the rupture of ripe Graafian follicles; but, on the other 

 hand, it is equally true that follicles rupture independently of the sexual act. 



To return to the phenomena which attend ovulation in the human subject, there is 

 every reason to suppose, at least from analogy, that the excitement of the genital organs 

 during sexual intercourse may determine the rupture of a ripe Graafian follicle. At 

 stated periods, marked by the phenomena of menstruation, one, and sometimes more 

 Graafian follicles become distended and usually rupture and discharge their contents into 

 the Fallopian tubes. This discharge of an ovum or ova may occur at the beginning, at 

 the end, or at any time during the continuance of the menstrual flow. Upon this 

 point, the observations of Coste, which were made many years ago, seem entirely con- 

 clusive. In a woman who died on the first day of menstruation, he found a recently- 

 ruptured follicle ; in other instances, at a more advanced period and toward the decline 

 of the menstrual flow, he found evidences that the rupture had occurred later ; in the 

 case of a female who drowned herself four or five days after the cessation of the menses, 

 a follicle was found in the right ovary, so distended that it was ruptured by very slight 

 pressure ; and other instances were observed in which follicles were not ruptured during 

 the menstrual period. The most striking case of this kind was of a young girl, nineteen 

 years of age, who committed suicide fifteen days after the menstrual period. The ovaries 

 were examined with the greatest care. "By the side of the Graafian vesicles largely 

 developed, were found traces of ruptured vesicles ; but the corpora lutea were evidently 

 too old to be reasonably referred to the last menstruation ; the Graafian vesicle, conse- 

 quently, had not matured, or at least had been arrested in its development." 



In conclusion, remembering that coitus may hasten the rupture of ripe follicles, we 

 quote from Coste the following as representing what we know of the relations between 

 ovulation and menstruation: 



" As a summary, then, of all the facts that I have observed, I believe it to be con- 

 clusive, that, in the human female, there is always, at each menstrual period, as during 

 the condition of rut in animals, a vesicle of the ovary which has a marked preponder- 

 ance over the others; that it spontaneously arrives at maturity, and, most generally, is 

 ruptured at some time during this period to give issue to the ovum which it contains; 

 but there are cases, also, in which, in the absence of sufficiently favorable conditions, 

 this distended vesicle cannot accomplish this end, and, as in mammals again, may remain 

 stationary or be entirely reabsorbed." 



Passage of Ova into the Fallopian Tubes. 



The fact that the ova, in the great majority of instances, pass into the Fallopian 

 tubes, is sufficiently evident. The fact, also, that ova may fall into the cavity of the 

 peritoneum is shown by the occasional occurrence of extra-uterine pregnancy, a rare 

 accident, which shows that, in all probability, the failure of unimpregnated ova to enter 

 the tubes is exceptional. When we come, however, to the mechanism of the passage 

 of the ova into the tubes, the explanation is difficult. At the present time there are two 

 theories with regard to this process ; one, in which it is supposed that the fimbriated 

 extremities of the Fallopian tubes, at the time of rupture of the Graafian follicles, be- 

 come adapted to the surface of the ovaries; and the other, that the ova are carried to 

 the- openings of the tubes by ciliary currents. Neither of these theories is capable of 

 actual demonstration ; and we can only judge of their probable correctness from ana- 

 tomical facts. Rouget, an earnest advocate of the first-mentioned theory, has given an 

 exact description of the muscular structures connected with the tubes and ovaries. We 



