OVARY (FUNCTIONS). 



The closure of the aperture, by cohesion of 

 its opposite sides, occasions a drawing to- 

 gether of the surrounding parts, and the ac- 

 companying collapse of the follicles causes the 

 part of the ovarian surface in this situation 

 to sink inwards. The depression thus caused 

 is increased by the continued shrivelling of 

 the follicle, and by its retiring inwards to- 

 wards the centre of the ovary. This latter 

 change is occasioned not so much by any ac- 

 tivity on the part of the now empty follicle 

 as by the approach of new and rising ones to 

 the surface, by which the empty and useless 

 ovisacs are now pressed aside. 



By these successive retirings of the follicles 

 after bursting, and by the cicatrisation of their 

 apertures, the ovarian surface becomes gra- 

 dually indented in all directions so as to ex- 

 hibit those pits and furrows which are always 

 seen upon the ovary in advanced life (fig. 390.) ; 

 and these, occurring in women under every 

 circumstance alike, afford one of the most 

 convincing proofs that this discharge of ova 

 from the ovary may and does occur independ- 

 ently of sexual congress. 



Finally, the stellate remains of the follicle 

 continue to decrease, and become gradually 

 buried in the ovarian stroma, until they are 

 entirely obliterated, thus giving place to other 

 vesicles which pass through the same stages of 

 growth and decadence. 



B. After Impregnation. Very different is 

 the progress of the Graafian follicle after im- 

 pregnation has taken place. Here, although 

 the changes which occur have no other intel- 

 ligible purpose than that of the final oblitera- 

 tion of the follicles, yet the process takes 

 place much more slowly than it does when the 

 ovipont has not been followed by conception. 

 In this latter case, the metamorphosis of the 

 follicle into the small yellow stellate organ 

 takes place usually within a month from the 

 time of rupture, and its subsequent reduction 

 to the little white cicatrix previous to its total 

 disappearance is completed in about the like 

 period. But the follicle, which has discharged 

 an ovum that has been afterwards impregnated, 

 is not obliterated in a shorter time usually 

 than 13 14 months. During that time it 

 appears to undergo a great and remarkable 

 development. But a close examination shows 

 that this is not true development, in the or- 

 dinary sense of the word. It is not a forward 

 movement, progressing towards any new pur- 

 pose or end, but is only the same process of 

 obliteration, conducted upon a larger scale, 

 and with a greater abundance of materials than 

 in the case of the ordinary follicles when im- 

 pregnation has not occurred. 



Apparently the chief difficulty which has 

 stood in the way of a clear comprehension of 

 this has arisen from a want of sufficient consi- 

 deration of those altered circumstances in 

 which the generative organs are placed after 

 conception ; for, from the moment that im- 

 pregnation has occurred, all parts of the gene- 

 rative apparatus are brought under the influ- 

 ence of a common stimulus, and all manifest 

 in a greater or lesser degree some progressive 



563 



change. This is more particularly observable 

 in the internal organs, and especially in the 

 uterus, which very soon receives a larger supply 

 of blood. But the blood-vessels supplying 

 the uterus inosculate so freely with those of 

 the ovary, that the two organs may be practi- 

 cally regarded as deriving their blood from one 

 common source. Each may be injected from 

 the vessels of the other, and though only one 

 set be selected, both are alike filled. 



Hence it may be assumed that, although 

 there is no direct continuity of texture be- 

 tween the ovary and the uterus, yet, under 

 the influence of a common supply of formative 

 material, as well as a common innervation, 

 there may be established such a consent of 

 action as will account, in some degree at least, 

 for the differences which we are now about 

 to consider; for when, after the discharge 

 of the ovum from the ovary, impregnation 

 fails, or has not been attempted, the internal 

 organs, previously highly vascular, subside 

 into a passive or quiescent state until the pe- 

 riod of the next ovipont approaches, when 

 the uterus again exhibits the same condition 

 of turgescence. But if impregnation has 

 taken place, then the turgescence of the ute- 

 rus, far from subsiding, only increases, and 

 certain of its textures now become rapidly 

 evolved. The reproductive act, however, 

 does not commence in the uterus. The ovary 

 is the seat of the first changes, and the uterus 

 is only placed in a condition of readiness, on 

 each occasion of the ovipont, to carry on and 

 complete the process which has been com- 

 menced in the former organ. The absence of 

 impregnation, on the one hand, is the cause 

 of the failure of the further stages of the pro- 

 cess; the occurrence of impregnation, on the 

 other hand, establishes these stages ; conse- 

 quently the ovisac which is about to discharge, 

 or one which has just discharged an ovum, 

 and the uterus which is about to receive or 

 which has just received that ovum, are both 

 placed under similar conditions. Whatever 

 influences the one in the direction of develop- 

 ment, affects the other also, to a certain de- 

 gree, in the same direction. Whatever, on 

 the other hand, determines the retrogression 

 of the one, determines, in like manner, the 

 receding of the other. If the ovum has be- 

 come impregnated, the follicle which was the 

 first birthplace of that particular ovum, and 

 the uterus which subsequently receives and 

 protects it, continue alike to suffer change. 

 But if the ovum perishes, the recipient organ 

 feels no stimulus, is not excited to further 

 preparation, subsides into its former state of 

 quiescence, and its producing capsule likewise 

 shrinks, and finally disappears. If the inquiry 

 be prosecuted further in the hope of eliciting 

 some more satisfactory explanation of this re- 

 markable series of changes, the investigation 

 will, in the present state of our knowledge, be 

 found altogether to fail. The question, Cui 

 bono ? continues unanswered, but the fact re- 

 mains, and the law appears to be invariable. 



When conception has followed the discharge 

 of an ovum from the ovarium, the follicle 

 oo 2 



~s X 



