CHANGES IN NON-PREGNANT UTERUS 101 



several Rodents (rat, guinea-pig, etc.), and has described procestrous 

 desquamation of the uterine epithelium, followed by recuperation. 

 The degenerative changes are accompanied by a secretion of mucus, 

 and there is a marked leucocytosis over the entire generative tract. 

 Desquamation of epithelium also occurs in the vagina. Furthermore, 

 emigration of leucocytes between the epithelium of the glands, 

 accompanied by great glandular activity, has been observed by 

 Blair Bell l in the prooestrous uterus of the rabbit. 



FIG. 20. Section through uterine mucosa of rabbit nine days after sterile 

 coition. The condition is one of pseudo-pregnancy, the glands being 

 very well developed. (From Hammond and Marshall.) 



In the rabbit pseudo-pregnant uterine hypertrophy only occurs 

 usually under experimental conditions, 2 as when the doe has 

 copulated with a buck in which the operation of vasectomy (or 

 severance of the vasa deferentia) has been performed so that 

 spermatozoa cannot be ejaculated, or where the female has had the 

 Fallopian tubes severed. Under such conditions the corpus luteum 

 (see p. 149) is formed in the ovary. The uterus undergoes growth, 

 vascularisation and extensive glandular development followed by 



1 Blair Bell, loc. cit. 



2 Ancel and Bouin, "Sur les Fonctions du Corps Jaune Gestatif," Jour. 

 Physiol. et Path. Gen., vols. xii. and xiii., 1910 and 1911. Hammond and 

 Marshall, "The Functional Correlation between the Ovaries, Uterus, and 

 Mammary Glands in the Rabbit," Proc. Roy. 8oc., B., vol. Ixxxvii., 1914. 



