APPENDIX. 427 



its pressure, so condensed the stroma at the place, that the 

 latter looked somewhat like an external capsule sending 

 processes inwards, which met and interwove with those sent 

 outward by the central membranous strise. But that this 

 appearance of external capsule was the result simply of the 

 matting of the stroma of the ovary by pressure, is shown by 

 the circumstance that it was absent at the peripheral part of 

 the clot-like body, there being there, as already said, merely the 

 indusium. 



u As to the microscopical characters of the clot-like matter 

 itself, this was found to consist of granulous corpuscles some- 

 what like so-called compound inflammation globules closely 

 aggregated, and red blood-corpuscles interspersed amongst 

 them. The latter had lost some of their colouring matter, 

 but the granulous corpuscles were tinged red, as if they had 

 imbibed it. 



" The conclusion which is to be drawn as to the nature of 

 the body from this investigation is, that it is a true corpus 

 luteum in an early stage ; that the central membranous shred 

 is the wall of the Graafian follicle, from which the ovum had 

 escaped ; and that the clot-like mass (which would by and by 

 have acquired the characteristic yellow appearance of the corpus 

 luteum, traces of which could indeed in some deep places be 

 detected), together with the membranous processes extending 

 through it from the central shred to the stroma of the ovary, 

 is the stroma surrounding the Graafian follicle infiltrated with 

 bloody-looking matter." 



With regard to the important question of the nature and 

 reason of the differences between true and false corpora lutea, 

 Mr. Wharton Jones observes : 



"If in the human female, Graafian follicles burst peri- 

 odically, independently of coitus, why is there no corpus 

 luteum left? The explanation which might be given of 

 this is : 



"By a slow, natural, and regular process, a Graafian 

 follicle maturates, points, bursts, and is evacuated like a small 

 healthy abscess or pimple, and like this the part quickly 

 cicatrises. A Graafian follicle, at the time of coitus, not hap- 

 pening to be in this fully matured state, its bursting is hastened 

 by the process of congestion, exudation, and extravasation 



