GENEEATIVE SYSTEM OF THE FEMALE 



165 



led to the conclusion that the ovarian follicles continue to be 

 formed during extra-uterine as during intra-uterine life, and by 

 the same process, with this difference, however, that their periodic 



<c -. 



FIG. 49. Primary ovarian follicle, from 

 ovary of rabbit. Magnified 320 diameters. 

 (Chiarugi.) u, ovum with germinal 

 vesicle ; e, follicular epithelium ; s, cortical 

 stroma. 



FIG. 50. Ovarian follicle in growth, from 

 ovary of rabbit. Magnified 320 diameters. 

 (Chiarugi.) u, ovum with germinal vesicle ; 

 e, simple cubical follicular epithelium ; s, 

 cortical stroma. 



destruction, coincident in great part with menstruation, greatly 

 surpasses the new and subsequent formation, which ceases only 

 at the beginning of the menopause. In Fig. 48, taken from 

 Paladino's monograph of 1887, are represented in longitudinal 



FIG. 51. Ovarian follicle, from ovary of rabbit, in a more advanced stage of growth than in the 

 preceding figure. Magnified 320 diameters. (Chiarugi.) u, ovum ; v, germinal vesicle ; z, zona 

 pellucida ; e, follicular epithelium in several strata ; t, theca or wall of follicle. 



and transverse section the tubes or cords resulting from the 

 sinking of the germinal epithelium into the ovary of an adult 

 woman; they are similar to those which are observed in the 

 ovaries of new-born infants. It therefore appears to me un- 

 deniable that during the whole of the long period of sexual life 

 there is continued in the woman a double process of destruction 



