THE SEXUAL ORGANS. 253 



of pregnancy; so that in persons dead in childbed, it still mea- 

 sures 4'" on the average, but afterwards more rapidly, until 

 ultimately, after some months, the metamorphosed Graafian 

 follicle has entirely disappeared or become reduced to a dimi- 

 nutive, variously coloured corpuscle, which undoubtedly may 

 still exist for a long time, and perhaps is not removed altogether 

 for some years. Such arrested corpora lutea {corpora albicantia 

 and nigra, of authors) at first retain a distinct limitation, a 

 dentate nucleus, containing a minute cavity of a greyish white 

 or red-brown, even black colour depending upon altered 

 hematin, and a cortical substance presenting various tints of 

 yellow or yellowish-white, or even quite white and. often still 

 distinctly plicated, but subsequently they become mere amor- 

 phous spots, coalescent with the stroma of the ovary. Their 

 elements are fibres, more of an embryonic character, such as 

 also form the ovarian stroma, together with various pigmentary 

 molecules and coloured crystals (hsematoidin), and a whitish - 

 yellow fat, which latter at first occurs in the cortical substance 

 still contained in larger, round, elongated, or fusiform cells, 

 but is ultimately liberated by their rupture, and at last sub- 

 jected to a more or less complete absorption. 



In the corpora lutea, which are not formed at the time of a 

 pregnancy, the same processes, in general, take place as in the 

 others, but with much greater rapidity; so that these bodies 

 have usually entirely disappeared in the space of one or two 

 months, or left only the merest trace, whence they never possess 

 the peculiar conformation of the others, which have been termed 

 the true corpora lutea. 



The place of the numerous follicles which disappear from the 

 ovaries during the whole of the vigorous periods of life, is 

 supplied by the constant production, even in the adult, of new 

 ovi-sacs, which are developed into Graafian follicles. In animals, 

 these new formations which take place at the time of heat, 

 and were first noticed by Barry, Bischoff, and Steinlin, are 

 very abundant and very easily observed, whilst in Man no 

 opportunity has as yet been afforded of noticing them, and it 

 is only from the circumstance, that in this case also in normal 

 ovaries, follicles of the most various sizes are always met with, 

 that a continual formation of them may be concluded to take 

 place. In Man, it is also probable, that the times of conception 



