VOL. XIV.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS'. ' 57 



size of a vetch, sometimes as large as a cherry, but without any suspicion of 

 superfoetation. The same thing he observed in a woman about the 7th month 

 of pregnancy. Moreover in one and the same ovarium, in different animals, 

 several corpora lutea are found of unequal sizes, without a corresponding mul- 

 tiplicity of foetuses. To this should be added, that in many ovaria (especiall)' 

 after they have been subjected to a boiling heat) the larger vessels are found 

 turgid with a coagulated yellow juice. It may further be conjectured that a 

 single albuminous vesicle may not suffice for the production of a single corpus 

 luteum, but that several may be required ; for where a perfect corpus luteuin is 

 formed, it not only occupies nearly the whole bed * of the ovarium, but com- 

 monly few albuminous vesiculae are then found, although at other times they 

 are in great numbers. Hence it may perhaps be inferred, that the production 

 of this glandular body, is not the immediate consequence of the ovum contained 

 within the ovarium being moistened with the seminal fluid, but that it is pre- 

 existent to it (the ovum) ; and that the albuminous vesicles are not strictly ova, 

 but the substance or matter from which is produced the gland, by means of 

 which the ovum is secreted (separatur) cherished, and at a stated time excluded. 

 The author is inclined to believe that the uterine vessels (as he terms them) 

 which he has so minutely described in the former part of this paper, and whose 

 contained fluid he supposes to answer the purposes of a semen foamineum, or at 

 least to supply the place of the liquor prostatarum, may possibly have some share 

 in the business of fecundation ; exerting, in conjunction with the semen mascu- 

 linum, a stimulating and quickening energy upon the ovum. Now these vessels are 

 continued to the extremities of the cornua uteri, and at the time of impregna- 

 tion become turgid with a viscid liquor, the qualities of which he supposes to be 

 considerably altered by the volatile particles of the semen masculinum; and that 

 with this liquor the extremities of the cornua uteri where conception begins 

 (ubi fit primaeva conceptio) are moistened. In this manner (according to the 

 author's views of impregnation) the ovulum dislodged from the ovarium be- 

 comes bathed with the uterine liquor, i. e. with a mixture of both sorts of se- 

 minal fluid — (Menstruo uterino, utriusque seminis volatilibus particulis, turgido 

 aspergitur.) 



* The author's expression is cavity (totatn fere ovarii concavitatem) which is by no means proper, 

 as the ovaria are not hollow bodies. Indeed many of Malpighi's terms are exceedingly exception- 

 able; thus he uses ichor (by which is commonly understood a thin acrid discharge from ulcers and 

 wounds) to denote the mucaginous or lymphatic fluid contained in his so called vasa uteri propria; 

 and by the words menstruum uterinum, quoted in the concluding part of this abridged account of his 

 paper, he means, not the sanguineous menstrual evacuation, but his imaginary fecundating liquor. 

 Of Malpighi's style it may further be remarked, that it is, on many occasions, too figurative; and that 

 in describing the viscera, he frequently uses the terra gland in a very witle and almost indefinite sense. ' 



VOL. III. I 



