ObO PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1683. 



How liable these parts in women are to tumors, there is none who have been 

 conversant in morbid dissections but must be sensible, insomuch that those fre- 

 quent instances I have met with have fully persuaded me that there is no part 

 in the body so often the seat and causes of dropsies in women as the ovarium ; 

 a too luxuriant afflux of humours easily extending these minute eggs into large 

 and sometimes most prodigious cystises, that sometimes I have taken some gal- 

 lons of water out of them, where I have found them entire, though most times 

 the vast quantity of waters bursts the membrane, and so it empties itself into 

 the cavity of the abdomen. 



Extract of a Letter from M. de S. Maurice, M. D. to M. de la Closure, a Phy^ 

 sician of Auheterre, April 26, l682, concerning the Formation of a Foetus in 

 the Testicle (Ovarium)', taken from the Journal de Medicine of Jan. l683, 

 by M. VAbbe de la Roque, at Paris. ]N° 150, p. 285. 



I think, sir, that after what lately happened to Madam de St. Mere, we ought 

 no longer to doubt of the formation of the foetus in the testicles (ovaria) of 

 women, and consequently of the existence of eggs. This lady had been safely 

 brought to bed 8 times, and after having continued 5 years without being with 

 child, about 3 months since she suspected herself to be fallen into that con- 

 dition again. But on the 22d instant, after she was up in the morning in very 

 good health, she fell into faintings, which made her lose absolutely her pulse 

 from that moment, without depriving her of her understanding or speech. In 

 the evening I found her cold and wholly without any pulse, her countenance 

 deadish, and covered with a clammy and cold sweat, having still an entire un- 

 derstanding and her speech strong. She complained of colicky pains, which 

 were quickly followed by all the forerunners of an imminent travail ; she called 

 her surgeon and died in his arms. 



By desire of Mr. de St. Mere the body was opened. In the epigastric region 

 all the entrails were found floating in blood. I caused 2 lb to be taken out 

 with a spoon, to avoid changing the situation of the parts, after which, seeing 

 that there remained in the right flank a prodigious quantity which was coagu- 

 lated, I tried myself to take it out with my hand, but was surprised, when 

 among the first clots which I drew forth, I found a little foetus about the size 

 of a thumb, and a third less in length, all very distinctly formed, and in which 

 was manifestly discovered the sex of a boy, but naked and without covering. 

 Two fingers from the same place I found the right cornu of the womb ; but my 

 amazement was doubled, when I found the testicle (ovarium) torn longwise and 

 through the middle on the side, that it did not touch the tube, and all its ca- 



