408 THE FEMALE REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS 



gradually replaced by connective tissue, which, by further con- 

 traction, finally produces a dense white fibrous scar, no longer 

 containing lutein pigment, known as a corpus albicans. This body 

 persists for a long period, but undergoes progressive contraction 



FIG. 330. A CORPUS ALBICANS, FROM A SECTION OF THE HUMAN OVARY. 

 x 75. (After Williams.) 



until only a minute scar of almost microscopical size remains to 

 mark the site of the ruptured corpuscle and the highly developed 

 corpus luteum. Such scars persist for years in the stroma of the 

 ovarian cortex. 



The function of the corpus luteum is practically unknown. A 

 glandular function resulting in the formation of an internal secre- 

 tion has recently been attributed to it (Born,* Cohn f ). 



Finally it must be stated that there are no recognizable histo- 

 logical differences, other than those of size and duration, between 

 the corpora lutea vera of pregnancy and the corpora lutea spuria 

 whose formation accompanies the extrusion of the unfertilized 

 ovum. The true corpora lutea are of relatively large size and per- 

 sist for many months, the spurious are somewhat smaller and are 

 of shorter duration ; yet both pass through the same histological 

 process of development and degeneration and both leave their 

 scars in the substance of the ovarian stroma. 



Ovarian scars also arise through atresia of the larger follicles, 

 the degeneration of whose epithelium is followed by an ingrowth 

 of tissue derived from the theca folliculi, and the gradual develop- 



* Arch, f . mik. Anat., 1894. 



flbid., 1903. 



