394 



The ovaria, like the testicles, swell and enlarge, at the time of puberty. 

 They shrink, and wither in some sort, when the woman is no longer 

 fit for conception. On examination, a, few days after conception, one of 

 the ovaria, larger than the other, shows a little yellowish vesicle, which 

 dries up in the course of pregnancy, so that, towards the end, there re- 

 mains nothing in place, but a very small cicatrix. Is this vesicle, the 

 outermost covering of the ovum, in which the germ is enclosed,' and 

 which is torn to allow its escape? The observations of Haller prove that 

 the corpus luteum is formed by the remains of a vesicle that has burst at 

 the moment of conception, and allowed the fluid it contained to escape. 

 In an ewe opened a few minutes after coition, you may see, in one of the 

 ovaria, a vesicle larger than the others, torn with a little wound, of which 

 the lips are still bloody. Inflammation comes on in the torn coats of the 

 small vesicle, fleshy granulations appear, then sink, and a scar shows the 

 place where it had been. The number of these cicatrices is proportion- 

 ed to that of the foetuses. It is not known how long the germ detached 

 from the ovarium remains within the fallopian tube, before it reaches the 

 cavity of the uterus. Valisnieri and Haller had never been able to per- 

 ceive it distinctly in this viscus, before the seventeenth day. 



The obstruction of the tubes may, as well as the defect or diseased 

 affection of the ovaria, cause barrenness. Morgagni speaks, on this head, 

 of certain courtezans in whom the tubes were entirely obliterated by the 

 thickening of their parietes ; the consequence, evidently, of the habitual 

 orgasm in which they had been kept, by two frequent excitation. The 

 structure of these parietes must make obstructions of the fallopian tubes 

 very easy. Their tissue is spongy, vascular, and seems susceptible of 

 erection, like the corpus cavernosum of the penis and of the clitoris. 

 Their internal coat (the .point of union between the serous membrane 

 which lines the abdomen, and the mucous membrane within the uterus) 

 partakes in the inflammation of both. I have often been consulted by 

 young women on the cause of their sterility: by a close investigation of 

 the causes from which it might have arisen, I have always found that 

 they had had, at different periods of life, inflammation of the lower part, 

 of the abdomen. A young woman, after obstinate suppression of the 

 menses, exhibited all the symptoms of inflammation of the peritoneum: 



seize, rolls into the hypogastric region, and there adheres to some point of the perito- 

 neum. It is found attached to the mesentery, to the colon, to the rectum;, to the ex- 

 .ternal part of the uterus, growing- there, and developed, by the vascular communica- 

 tion which takes place at the adhesion ; but the vessels of the peritoneum are insuffici- 

 ent for the entire developement of the foetus, which dies, for want of nourishment, in 

 the first months of pregnancy. The adhesion of the ovum to the peritoneum, is easily 

 accounted for, by the irritation it occasions : it may be considered as a foreign body, de- 

 termining, by its presence, inflammation of the membrane, with which it lies in contact 

 and uniting with it, because it 'brings to this act its own share of vitality. It is really 

 a union of 'two living parts, not unlike to that which takes place, between the bleeding 

 lips of a wound, between the pleura pulmonalis, and pleura costalis, 8cc. 



But as the serous membranes contain, in their tissue, capillaries so fine, that when in 

 a healthy state, the blood does not show its colour in them, their vessels never develops 

 themselves, sufficiently to transmit to the ovum, which has adhered to them, a due sup- 

 ply of this fluid. The mucous membranes receiving more blood, are able to supply 

 more; but the placenta cannot adhere to them in extra uterine conception. The mem- 

 brane which lines the tube, belongs, in fact, as much to the serous as to the mucous mem- 

 branes; it establishes, as is well known, the only point of communication there is between 

 the two kinds of membranes. Author's Note. 



