610 



REPRODUCTION. 



FIG. 170. 



be readily separated by the handle of a scalpel or the flattened end of a 

 probe. The whole corpus luteum may also be stripped out, or enucle- 

 ated from the ovarian tissue ; and when extracted in this way, it pre- 

 sents itself as a spheroidal or flattened mass, with a convoluted external 



surface covered with remains of the con- 

 nective tissue by which it was attached to 

 the substance of the ovary. 



We have had an opportunity of exam- 

 ining a corpus luteum of this period, in 

 an ovary immediately after its removal 

 from the body of the living woman. It 

 was on the occasion of the extirpation 

 by Prof. T. T. Sabine, in 18U, of the 

 left ovary for obstinate ovarian neuralgia, 

 from an unmarried woman, otherwise 

 healthy, 25 years of age.* The last men- 

 strual period had terminated exactly three 

 weeks before the date of the operation, 

 and a new one commenced twenty-four 

 hours afterward. The extirpated ovary 

 presented a perfectly normal appearance, 

 and contained a corpus luteum similar in 

 all respects to that represented in Fig. 170. Its convoluted wall was 

 fully formed, without any distinctly marked yellow tinge, and the cen- 

 tral coagulum was partly, but not entirely, de- 

 colorized. The patient recovered without diffi- 

 culty. 



After the third week from the close of men- 

 struation, the corpus luteum passes into a retro- 

 grade condition. It diminishes perceptibly in 

 size, and the central coagulum continues to be 

 absorbed and loses still farther its coloring mat- 

 ter. The whole body undergoes a process of 

 atrophy ; and at the end of the fourth week it is 

 less than 10 millimetres in its longest diameter- 

 (Fig. 171). The external cicatrix may still be 

 seen, as well as the point where the central co- 

 agulum lies in contact with the peritoneal sur- 

 face. There is still no organic connection be- 

 tween the coagulum and the convoluted wall ; 

 but the condensation of the clot and the closer 

 folding of the wall prevent the separation of the two being so easily 

 accomplished as before. The entire corpus luteum may still be extracted 

 from its bed in the ovarian tissue. 



The color of the convoluted wall, during this stage, instead of fading,, 



HUMAN OVARY cut open, showing a 

 corpus luteum, divided longitudi- 

 nally; three weeks after menstrua- 

 tion. From a girl, twenty years of 

 age, dead of haemoptysis. 



FIG. 171. 



HUMAN OVARY, showing a 

 corpus luteum, four weeks 

 after menstruation; from 

 a woman dead of apoplexy. 



* New York Medical Journal, January, 1875, p. 37. 



