554 SWALE VINCENT 



When the ovaries were removed from very young rabbits, the uteri re- 

 mained infantile. The same was the case with the Fallopian tubes. 



Ovarian extirpation in dogs results in a marked augmentation in the 

 vasomotor reaction to a standard dose of nicotin, a phenomenon inter- 

 preted as indicating hyperexcitability of the sympathetic nervous system 

 (Hoskins and Wheelon). This corresponds with what occurs after ovari- 

 otomy in the human subject (vide supra). All the foregoing facts show 

 that the ovary has a pronounced influence in helping to develop and to 

 maintain the secondary sexual characters. Although some observers have 

 urged that the effects of ovariotomy (on the uterus, for example) are due 

 to interference with the blood supply at the operation, or to damage to 

 nerves, the evidence as to influence of some kind of internal secretion is 

 now tolerably conclusive. 



Transplantation of Ovaries 



In the following account the term "autoplastic" is employed when 

 the ovary is transplanted into some part of the body of the same indi- 

 vidual from which it was removed. A "homoplastic" graft is one which 

 is made from one animal to another of the same species, while "hetero- 

 plastic" is the term applied to grafting from one individual into another 

 of a different species. 



In the human subject transplantation of ovarian tissue has been fre- 

 quently carried out, but from the reports of cases it is not always pos- 

 sible to learn what degree of success has attended the operation. Homo- 

 plastic transplantation was carried out, and apparently with success, by 

 Morris (a-) in 1906. This writer reports the birth of a child in the case of 

 a woman from whom the ovaries were removed, and in whom ovaries from 

 another woman were grafted four years previously. 



Autoplastic transplantation of the ovaries in animals was first suc- 

 cessfully carried out by Knauer (a) (b) (r) (1896, 1899, 1900), who de- 

 scribed experiments upon rabbits in which the ovaries were removed from 

 the normal position and grafted upon the mesometrium or between the fas- 

 cia and the muscle of the abdominal wall. Some portion of the grafted 

 ovary always died ; the rest produced ova which could be fertilized. The 

 atrophy of the uterus produced by castration was prevented by successful 

 transplantation of an ovary. Knauer obtained similar results with dogs. 



Grigorieff in 1897 reported pregnancy in four rabbits from which the 

 ovaries were removed and replaced. He also records two cases in which 

 ovaries were successfully transplanted from one woman to another (homo- 

 plastic transplantation). Ribbert (a) found that during the first months 

 after transplantation the peripheral part of the ovary remained unaltered, 

 but the central part degenerated into connective tissue. Later, however, 



