B. -DISEASES OF THE FEMALE SEXUAL OKGANS 



SECTION L 

 DISEASES OF THE VARIES. 



CHAPTER I. 



INFLAMMATION OF THE OVAEY, OOPHOEITIS [OVAEITIS], 



ETIOLOGY. The Graafian follicle, the stroma of the ovary, and its 

 serous coating, may become the seat of inflammation. The first two 

 forms occasionally lead to suppuration of the parenchyma, the last 

 almost always leaves thickening of the serous coat and adhesions to 

 neighboring organs. 



Parturition, with its sequelae, most frequently causes oophoritis ; 

 but, as we exclude the diseases caused by pregnancy, delivery, or child- 

 bed from discussion in this section, we shall here pass by puerperal 

 oophoritis. Next to childbed, the disease appears to begin most fre- 

 quently at times when the ovary is hypersemic, and is the seat of a 

 physiological injury from the rupture of a Graafian vesicle. The best- 

 known causes of non-puerperal oophoritis are injurious influences act- 

 ing on the body at the time of menstruatipn, such as catching cold, 

 getting the feet wet, coitus during menstruation, etc. One attack of 

 the disease predisposes to another. 



ANATOMICAL APPEAEANCES. Ovaritis attacks only one ovary. If 

 the inflammation start from the follicles, we find one, or more rarely 

 several, of the Graafian vesicles swollen to the size of a pea or a 

 cherry, filled with a variegated exudation, and their external envelopes 

 reddened by capillary injection. At the same tune the ovary is usu- 

 ally but little enlarged ; except a slight oedema, the stroma appears 

 normal ; the serous covering usually participates in the inflammation. 

 In most cases the disease runs a favorable course ; the exudation is 



