OKGANS OF THE BODY. 



537 



The ovary (fig. 529), the most important part of the whole, is a very 

 remarkable organ. 



It may be divided into two portions,, namely, into a kind of medullary 

 substance, i.e., non- glandular 

 and very vascular connective- 

 tissue, and into a glandular 

 parenchyma enveloping the 

 latter. The first has been named 

 the vascular, the external layer 

 theparenchymal zone by Wal- 

 deyer. 



Taking the former of these 

 first, we find it commencing at 

 the so-called hilus of the organ 

 (the hilus stroma of His), at 

 which spot large blood and 

 lymphatic vessels enter and 

 leave the part. Traversed in 



all rh'rppHnrxa "hv iTiTnTmpra"hlp Fig. 529. The ovary, a, stroma ; 6, mature Gracyfan fol- 



tons by innumerable licle; c< a larger one; d) a fresh corpus luleum with 



blood-vessels, this fibrOUS nUC- thick lining*; e, an old corpus luteum ; g, veins with 



leus presents itself as a spongy their first branches '/> within the ^ an - 

 red mass, comparable to cavernous tissue. 



From it a number of centrifugal bands of fibrous tissue are sent off into 

 the gland parenchyma, where they form septa, and coalesce again peri- 

 pherally, giving rise, by their close intermixture, to an external boundary 

 layer (fig. 530, b). It was formerly held that this last might be divided 



Fig. 530. Ovary of the rabbit a, germinal epithelium (supposed serosa) ; 6, cortical or external 

 fibrous layer; c, youngest follicles; d, a somewhat better developed and older one. 



into an internal lamina of very dense texture, the albuginea, and an 

 external serous membrane covering the latter. This condition of parts 

 does not exist, however. The surface of the ovary uncovered by peri- 

 toneum is coated with a layer of low columnar cells (a) (Pfliiger, Wai- 

 To this the suitable name of germinal epithelium has been given. 



