CYSTIC AND CYSTO-FIBROUS DEGENERATION OF 

 THE OVARIES OF COWS. NYMPHOMANIA' 



The most frequent and important disease of the ovaries is 

 cystic degeneration, to which Zangger was the first to draw at- 

 tention, in the Schweitzer Archiv. fiir Tierheilkunde, Volume 

 XXII, 1859, page 280. 



It is essential to a proper comprehension of the subject that we 

 have in mind a brief outline of the formation, rupture and oblit- 

 eration, or astresia, of the Graafian follicles and that we recog- 

 nize the significance of the formation and degeneration of the 

 corpus luteum for the further deyelopment of ovisacs and the 

 origin of ovarian cysts, in which we follow the highly scientific 

 and meritorious investigations and contributions of our anato- 

 mist. Professor Doctor Rubeli. 



It is known that the reproductive cells originate from the gerniiiial epi- 

 thelium, which sinks down into the stroma of the ovary in the form of cell 

 tubes. The formation of ova in hoofed animals is generally completed at 

 the time of birth. According to Bonnet, there may, in exceptional cases, 

 be a possibility of a new invagination of the germinal epithelium upon the 

 margin of a ruptured ovisac. 



The primitive ova in the young ovary either lie somewhat scattered, as in 

 ruminants and swine, or arranged in groups in the peripheral layer of the 

 ovary. When the germinal epithelium has ceased its invagination, the hoi tea 

 albtigiiiea is formed as the outermost zone of the stroma, over which the 

 ovarian epithelium extends. The primary eggs then become s parated from 

 each other by the ingrowth between them of the ovarian stroma, which 

 pushes in between the cells and leaves each ovum surrounded by a single 

 layer of smooth cells, constituting the primary follicular epithelium. Heitz 

 (Archives fiir Wissensch. u. Prakt. Tierheilkunde, Vol. 32, 1906) recog- 

 nizes that, in the ovaries of calves, the epithelium may consist of a single 



' In the following pages, (161-234) so far as they deal with sterility and 

 nymphomania due to cystic or cysto-fibrous degeneration of the ovaries, to 

 persistent corpora Itiiea, or to pj-ometra in cows, we have, with his permis- 

 sion, inserted, essentially entire, the admirable report of Prof. Dr. E. Hess 

 of the Bern veterinary school, entitled "The Sterility of Cows ", presented 

 at the Annual Convention of Swiss Veterinarians at Freiburg the 19th of 

 October, 1905, and appearing in the Schweizer Archiv. fiir Tierheilkunde, 

 No. 6, 1906, page 351. The illustrations and some brief additions, in [ ] 

 are our own. 



II 161 



