v GENEKATIVE SYSTEM OF THE FEMALE 191 



physiologists and gynaecologists agree in accepting this theory 

 as a general rule, and consider also that the changes in the 

 fertilised ovum, that is pregnancy, commence always in the tube. 

 When the unfertilised ovum arrives in the uterus, it is no longer 

 capable of fertilisation, and is destined to be expelled after a 

 longer or shorter time (in dogs after eight to fourteen days). 



With this question is connected another interesting problem. 

 Are the sexual excitement of coitus, and the congestive state 

 which accompanies it, capable of causing the rupture of a Graafian 

 follicle in course of maturation, as occurs periodically at menstrua- 

 tion ? The fact that woman can be fecundated at any time, even 

 in the interval of about ten days during which the uterine mucosa 

 is in the resting stage, in distinction to the mammals, in which 

 coitus and fecundation occur only during the period of "heat," 

 speaks in favour of this old theory ; it agrees, moreover, with the 

 popular belief that sexual intercourse proves more fruitful the 

 greater the co-operation and sexual ardour the woman displays 

 during the connection. Slaviansky, Leopold, and Eomiti main- 

 tain anew this old view, which is not contradicted by any fact, 

 but. at the same time is not supported so far as I know by any 

 direct experimental proof. 



In fact, to account for fruitful coitus, not coincident with the 

 time which immediately precedes or immediately follows the 

 menstrual period, it is not difficult to suppose that the sperm, 

 having arrived at the ovary, retains its vitality there for several 

 days, until maturation and the bursting of the follicle which 

 precedes menstruation takes place ; or that the ovum expelled in 

 the menstruation previous to coitus remains for some days in the 

 peritoneal cavity, before being impelled along the oviduct into 

 the uterus, so that it may be reached later by the sperm and 

 impregnated. 



Of these two views, that the spermatozoa wait for several 

 days the rupture of the follicle in order to fecundate the ovum, 

 or on the other hand that the ovum expelled from the follicle 

 remains several days in the abdomen before being impregnated, 

 the first is certainly more worthy of attention, for it has been 

 observed that the ovum expelled from the follicle loses after a 

 short time the capacity of being fertilised, whilst the spermatozoa 

 which have arrived at the ovary preserve for a long time their 

 vitality and capacity of movement and fertilisation (v. page 127). 

 But let us declare frankly, although the contrary opinion now 

 obtains, that the simplest hypothesis, which gives a true teleological 

 value to the venereal orgasm which accompanies sexual intercourse 

 in the woman, is that maintained by Slaviansky, Leopold, and 

 Eomiti. 



VI. We pass now to consider the culminating physiological act 

 which makes possible the whole process of reproduction of the 



