352 OF CONCEPTION 



mated by its vita propria (547), draws in, as it were, 

 the semen ejaculated by the male,* and appears to 

 pour forth a fluid of its own against it (552) ; the tubes 

 become rigid, and their fimbriae embrace the ovaria, in 

 one of which a ripe Graafian vesicle bursts like an ab- 

 scess, and its albuminous drop of fluid, being absorbed 

 by the abdominal opening of the tube, is conveyed to 

 the womb. 



562. After the escape of this drop from the ovarium, 

 the lips of the wound are closed by an external cica- 

 trix, and the remaining vascular membrane is converted 

 into a corpus luteum.f This is at first hollow, and full, 

 as appears to me, of a plastic lymph, which in progress 

 of time becomes a fleshy nucleus, J surrounded by a 

 thick, remarkably vascular, cortex. § (A) 



563. After impregnation, the canal which runs along 

 the cervix of the uterus, is thoroughly closed, espe- 



* If we consider the impetus with which the semen is emitted, and as it were 

 swallowed by the uterus, and how small a quantity is proved, by experiments 

 on animals, to be sufficient for impregnation, we shall be able to explain tbose 

 well established cases of conception, where the hymen was imperforate,— cases 

 brought forwards in support of the existence of a seminal aura. 



■f* See J. Chph. Kuhlemann, Observat. circa negot. generat. in ovib. facta. 

 Gotting. 1753. 4to. c. f. ae. 



X See W. Hunter, Anatomy of the gravid uterus. Tab. xv. fig. 5. tab. xxix. 

 fig. 3. tab. xxxi. fig. 3. 



§ It is a celebrated question of great importance both in physiology and fo- 

 rensic medicine, and much agitated in late years, whether a corpus luteum is 

 the consequence of a fruitful coition only and therefore an infallible sign of 

 conception, or whether it may occur independently of coition and therefore 

 exist in virgins. I trust that I have established the truth of this point and 

 shown the conditions under which a corpus luteum may occasionally be formed 

 even in virgins. Specimen physiologic comparatte inter animantia calirli san- 

 guinis vifipara et ovipara, in the Commentat. Soc. Reg. Scientar. Gotting. 

 vol. ix. p. 109 sq. 



