THE GENERATIVE GLANDS 399 



of the ovary have, it is true, been minutely described and variously 

 named (granule cells, migratory cells, plasma cells, medullary 

 cells), but the functions accredited to them have been purely local 

 and trophic in character. They were believed to be the renegera- 

 tive matrix of the ovarian parenchyma, or of the nutritional cells of 

 the membrana granulosa and of the ovum (Plato). Regaud and 

 Policard were the first to suggest that these cells might be secre- 

 tory glandular cells. 



Bouin adopted the view that this cell-complex represented an 

 internal secretory gland, and his foundation for this belief is given 

 in a comprehensive work by Bouin's pupil, Limon (1902). 

 According to Limon, the interstitial tissue of the ovary is com- 

 posed of epithelioid cells, the protoplasm of which is filled with 

 granules resembling fat, which stain black with osmium, but 

 afterwards dissolve in Canada balsam. These cells are differently 

 placed in different animals; they are sometimes arranged in com- 

 pact masses and cords, sometimes they are scattered without any 

 apparent arrangement. In the rabbit, the field-mouse, and the 

 guinea-pig, they are clustered together to form lobes which occupy 

 the major portion of the organ ; in certain other species they are 

 merely rudimentary. Concerning their genesis, Limon ascer- 

 tained that these cells are derived from the cells of the theca 

 interna folliculi, and are therefore of connective tissue origin. 

 The metamorphosis of the theca interna into interstitial tissue 

 accompanies the degeneration of the membrana granulosa and 

 of the ovum. When the ovum becomes destroyed, the cavity in 

 the vesicle becomes filled with young connective tissue and 

 shrivels; scarcely anything remains of the epithelium of the 

 membrana granulosa, and the ovum is recognizable only as a 

 small, shrivelled, hyaline lump in a mesh of the network of con- 

 nective tissue. At this stage, the metamorphosed vesicle re- 

 sembles a small corpus luteum, the structure of the cells of the 

 theca interna having a resemblance to those of the corpus luteum. 

 These metamorphosed vesicles may be termed spurious corpora 

 lutea, or, better, atretic vesicles, and, in their totality, they repre- 

 sent the interstitial ovarian gland. 



The findings of Limon and Bouin, and the conclusions at 

 which these authors arrived, are confirmed by Cohn (1903), who 

 investigated the interstitial ovarian tissue of rabbits. From the 

 results of researches which he carried out (1905), Frankel came 

 to the conclusion that in many species, especially rodents, the 

 interstitial ovarian tissue is very perfectly developed, while in the 

 adult human female there are no traces of it ; for this reason he 

 is unable to assign a physiological significance to this tissue. 

 Wallart and Seitz, on the other hand, observed changes in the 

 ovaries of pregnant women, such being enlargement, in many 

 follicles, of the theca interna cells and the presence of fat and 

 lutein in the protoplasm of these cells. These authors concluded 



