572 



UTERUS AND ITS APPENDAGES. 



Microscopical Society of London *, no trace 

 of an ovary or generative gland was discover- 

 able, but only slight indications of two linear- 

 shaped bodies occupying the dorsal and lum- 

 bar regions on either side of the vertebral 

 column, representing the corpora Wolffiana. 

 In another embryo measuring 5'" in length, the 

 generative gland could just be discerned in 

 front of the supra-renal capsules and kidneys, 

 but its form could be only indistinctly traced. 

 In an embryo, however, which measured 8'''' 

 in length, the gland had already assumed dis- 

 tinctly the elongated figure characteristic of 

 the early formation of the ovary. It mea- 

 sured 0*8 /r/ , and its position was oblique, or 

 intermediate between the perpendicular direc- 

 tion of the Wolffian body and the horizontal 

 one of the fully formed ovary. In an embryo 

 of three months the generative gland or ovary 

 still retained the oblique direction. Its length 

 was 2"', and its breadth G'4"'. 



From this period the gland, which now be- 

 gins to assume more decidedly the character 

 of an ovary, gradually acquires the horizontal 

 position in which it is found at birth (^g.440.). 

 In the foetus at term the ovary has usually 

 attained a length of 4-5"', and a breadth of 

 H-2'"(/g.441.). Itsfigureisan extended oval, 

 with flattened sides and base. These meet to 

 form a triangle, whose basal margins are sinu- 

 ous and sometimes indented. At the age of 

 three years, (fig. 442.) the ovary attains a 

 length of 10-1 2"', still however preserving its 

 elongated form, with irregular or slightly in- 

 dented margins. This peculiarity of a foetal con- 

 dition the ovary gradually loses as the period 

 of puberty approaches, when it grows more 

 rapidly and acquires the form and dimensions 

 already described as characteristic of the ma- 

 ture organ (fig. 369.). At this period of life, 

 however, no feature of the ovary is more sub- 

 ject to variation than its form. Even for some 

 time after the catamenia have been established, 

 the elongated figure is often seen to have been 

 retained, although the rounded or gibbous 

 outline is more commonly observed by the 

 time that adult age is attained. 



The ovary is now full and plump ; its sur- 

 face up to the time of puberty has remained 

 uniformly smooth, even, and shining, and its 

 investing tunics are unbroken.f But it has 



* Vol. iii. part ii. p. 65. 



t In reference to the human subject, the univer- 

 sally received opinion regarding the discharge of ova 

 by rupture of the ovisac, as an occurrence which com- 

 mences only at or after puberty, has been called in 

 question by Dr. Ritchie, who, a'fter detailing a series 

 of observations upon the condition of the ovary at 

 various periods of life, asserts that " the Graafian 

 vesicles contained in the ovaries prior to menstru- 

 ation are found, as they also are in every other 

 period of life, in continued progression towards the 

 circumference of the gland, which they penetrate, 

 discharging themselves by circular-shaped capillary- 

 sized pores or openings in the peritoneal coat ; the 

 presence of the catamenia being thus no indispen- 

 sable prerequisite to their rupture." l It should be 

 observed, however, that the facts adduced by Dr. 

 Ritchie do not appear to bear out very clearly the 

 conclusions which he has drawn from them. 



1 Lond. Med. Gaz., vol. xxxiv. p. 253. 



been seen that, from puberty onwards, through 

 these two tunics of the ovary, the ova pe- 

 riodically escape by a process of dehiscence, 

 resulting from an absorption and rupture of 

 these tunics. The effect of these repeated 

 lacerations is twofold. The surface becomes 

 scarred in all directions by the closing up of 



Fig. 390. 



Ovary about the time of cessation of menstruation. 

 (Ad Nat.) 



the lacerated openings, whilst the successive 

 discharges of the contents of the ovisacs 

 gradually diminish the bulk of the entire or- 

 gan (Jig. 390.). In proportion as age advances, 

 these cicatrices and indentations become still 

 more numerous, and the once smooth and 

 plump ovary is converted into a small corru- 

 gated wrinkled body full of pits and tortuous 



Fig. 391. 



Ovary in old age. 



lines (/g.391.). When sections are made of 

 the ovary in this condition, it is found that all 

 traces of the Graafian follicle have disappeared; 

 or one or two only may be observed, degene- 

 rated into little masses or sacs of cartilaginous 

 hardness. More commonly, however, nothing 

 now remains but a dense parenchyma. 



Besides these changes in the form of the 

 ovary and the condition of its component 

 parts, great alterations also take place in its 

 vascular supply. In early life, and especially 

 from the establishment of puberty up to the 

 critical age, the organ is abundantly supplied 

 with blood-vessels, which are seen everywhere 

 both in the proper parenchyma of the ovary, 

 and also upon the walls of the ovisacs. These 

 have been described as undergoing enlarge- 

 ment, and probably increasing in number in 

 the neighbourhood of the spot at which the 

 rupture of the follicle occurs. Not only, 

 however, is there a local hypersemia in these 

 situations at each recurrence of the ovipont, 

 but the entire ovary receives a larger supply 

 of blood on these occasions. But when the 

 process of ovulation has entirely ceased, the 

 tissues begin to suffer the wasting of age, the 

 ovary partakes in the general state of pallor 

 of the other pelvic viscera, and the ovarian 

 vessels carry only as much blood as will suffice 

 for the bare nutrition of the shrivelled organ. 



