CORPUS LUTEUM OF PREGNANCY. 



533 



Fie. 193. 



hibited. The central coagulum, perfectly colorless and fibrinous 

 in appearance, is often so much flattened by the lateral compres- 

 sion of its mass, that it has hardly a line in thickness. The other 

 relations of the different parts of the corpus luteum remain the 

 same. 



The corpus luteum has now attained its maximum of develop- 

 ment, and remains without any very perceptible alteration during 

 the fifth and sixth months. It then begins to retrograde, diminish- 

 ing constantly in size during the seventh and eighth months. Its 

 external wall fades still more perceptibly in color, becoming of a 

 faint yellowish white, not unlike that which it presented at the end 

 of the third week. Its texture is thick, soft, and elastic, and it is 

 still strongly convoluted. An abundance of fine red vessels can be 

 seen penetrating from the exterior into the 

 interstices of its convolutions. The central 

 coagulum is reduced by this time to the 

 condition of a whitish, radiated cicatrix. 



The atrophy of the organ continues dur- 

 ing the ninth month. At the termination of 

 pregnancy, it is reduced to the size of half 

 an inch in length and three-eighths of an 

 inch in depth. (Fig. 193.) It is then of a 

 faint indefinite hue, but little contrasted 

 with the remaining tissues of the ovary. 

 The central cicatrix has become very small, 

 and appears only as a thin whitish lamina, 

 with radiating processes which run in be- 

 tween the interstices of the convolutions. 

 The whole mass, however, is still quite firm 

 and resisting to the touch, and is readily 

 distinguishable, both from its size and tex 



ture, as a prominent feature in the ovarian tissue, and a reliable 

 indication of pregnancy. The convoluted structure of its external 

 wall is very perceptible, and the point of rupture, with its external 

 peritoneal cicatrix, distinctly visible. 



After delivery, the corpus luteum retrogrades rapidly. At the 

 end of eight or nine weeks, it has become so much altered that its 

 color is no longer distinguishable, and only faint traces of its con- 

 voluted structure are to be discovered by close examination. These 

 traces may remain, however, for a long time afterward, more or less 



CORPUS LUTETM of preg- 

 nancy, at term ; from a woman 

 dead in delivery from rupture 

 of the uterus. 



