268 SPECIAL HISTOLOGY. 



the ova are perfectly distinct and disproportionately large, 

 with a delicate zona pellucida, and still lying very close to the 

 walls of the follicle. The further development is apparent 

 of itself ; and I will only remark that, in the new-born child, 

 follicles visible to the naked eye will be more rarely found; 

 whilst such make their appearance even before puberty, although 

 they undergo no considerable development before that period. 

 According to what has been said, the mode of origin of the 

 Graafian follicle ranks in every respect with that of the tubular 

 glands. The former is an agglomeration of cells, at first, 

 perhaps, without cavity or contents, to which the structure- 

 less membrane is added, not by the coalescence of the outer- 

 most cells, but probably as an excretion from them, and thus 

 is formed the follicle, which therefore exactly corresponds with 

 a closed gland-vesicle, or a section of a tubular gland-canal. 

 How the germinal vesicle, and the vitelline membrane arise, 

 is doubtful; the former is either a nucleus of new formation, 

 originating in the minute cavity of the follicle, about which a 

 certain amount of vitellus is subsequently collected, the cell, or 

 vitelline membrane not being formed until after this, from a 

 sort of cell formation "around portions of contents" ; or the 

 whole ovum, with the germinal vesicle, is nothing else than the 

 central cell of the primordial rudiment of the Graafian follicle, 

 and consequently coexistent with it. In any case it cor- 

 responds to a cell, and the germinal vesicle is nothing but the 

 cell-nucleus. 



[With respect to the physiological conditions of the mature, 

 female sexual organs, much has already been remarked in the 

 preceding pages; and it will, therefore, here be sufficient to say 

 something about their movements and secretions. In the 

 ovaries, whose stroma frequently presents a deceptive appear- 

 ance of muscularity, I have in vain sought for muscles, with 

 nitric acid of 20g, although in recent preparations microscopical 

 appearances are occasionally obtained, which one is inclined to 

 explain as belonging to that tissue. That the oviducts are 

 capable of very active movements cannot be doubted, from the 

 results of vivisections in animals, and microscopical researches in 

 Man; and in opposition to V. Kiwisch ('Geburtskunde/ p. 96) 

 I do not understand why their application to the ovaries should 



