582 



MENSTRUATION AND PREGNANCY. 



CORPTS LTTETM of pregnancy, at end of second 

 m>mth ; from a woman dead from induced abortion. 



to present the appearance of a purely fibrinous deposit. Sometimes 

 we find that a part of the serum, during its separation from the clot, 

 has. accumulated in the centre of the mass, as in Fig. 191, forming a 



little cavity containing a few 



Fig- 191. drops of clear fluid and in- 



closed by a whitish, fibrinous 

 layer, the remains of the solid 

 portion of the clot. It is 

 this fibrinous layer which has 

 sometimes been mistaken for 

 a distinct organized mem- 

 brane, lining the internal sur- 

 face of the convoluted wall, 

 and which has thus led to 

 the belief that the yellow 



matter of the corpus luteum is normally deposited outside the mem- 

 brane of the Graafian follicle. Such, however, is not its real struc- 

 ture. The convoluted wall of the corpus luteurn is the membrane 

 of the follicle itself, partially altered by hypertrophy, as may be 

 readily seen by examination in the earlier stages of its growth ; and 



the fibrinous layer, situated 

 internally, is the original 

 bloody coagulum, decolorized 

 and condensed by continued 

 absorption. The existence of 

 a central cavity containing 

 serous fluid, is merely an oc- 

 casional, not a constant pheno- 

 menon. More frequently, the 

 fibrinous clot is solid through 

 out, the serum being gradually 

 absorbed, as it separates spon- 

 taneously from the coagulum. 

 During the third and fourth 

 months, the enlargement of the corpus luteum continues ; so that at 

 the end of that time it may measure seven-eighths of an inch in 

 length by three-quarters of an inch in depth. (Fig. 192.) The con- 

 voluted wall is still thicker and more highly developed than before, 

 having a thickness, at its deepest part, of three-sixteenths of an inch. 

 Its color, however, has already begun to fade, and is now of a dull 

 yellow, instead of the bright, clear tinge which it previously ex- 



Fig. 192. 



CORPUS LUTEUM of pregnancy, at end of fourth 

 month ; from a woman dead by poisou. 



