508 MR. F. E. BEDDARD ON THE DEVELOPMENT AND [Dec. 7, 
Stage 1.—The earliest stage of these bodies is represented in 
fig. 1; its different constituents are figured, highly magnified, in 
figs. 5, 14—20. 
The whole structure is situated near to the surface of the ovary, 
with which indeed it is still in continuity ; the germinal epithelium 
(ge), which is apparently not everywhere present as an external layer 
in the adult ovary, is here conspicuous by its presence; it forms a 
mass of cells, the nuclei of which are so large and so closely pressed 
together that I have found it impossible to detect any cell-outlines 
(see fig. 1). These thickly clustered groups of epithelial cells seem to 
correspond to the “epithelial islands ” of many writers (see Iwakawa, 
G.J.M.S. 1882, p. 266). The nuclei of these cells are deeply stained 
by borax carmine, and for the most part rounded or oval in contour, 
though frequently (perhaps owing to the hardening-reagent) some- 
what angular. The staining-fluid is not evenly taken up by the 
whole nucleus, but a peripheral layer, sometimes confined to one pole 
of the nucleus, is very deeply stained, the central regions being compa- 
ratively pale. 
The germinal epithelium is immediately continuous with a mass 
of cells which form a hollow sphere, partly occupied by a plug of 
cells of a somewhat different appearance ; the spherical mass of cells 
is quite close to the surface and connected with the germinal 
epithelium by a very short neck, which is as wide as the area occupied 
by the patch of germinal epithelium. 
The peripheral mass of cells is already differentiated into two 
distinct layers, which are distinguishable from each other by the 
characters of the component cells and more particularly of their 
nuclei. 
The outermost layer is of course the one that is in contact with 
the germinal epithelium ; the outlines of its cells are not very visible 
in my preparations: between the nuclei of the cells is a fibrous 
substance moderately stained by borax carmine; this appears to 
me to be the slightly altered protoplasm of the germinal cells 
themselves, and not to be an inroad of connective-tissue stroma-cells. 
The germinal cells bear, however, a very striking resemblance to 
connective-tissue cells. 
Balfour has figured (Q. J. M.S. 1878, pl. xvii. fig. 10) and described 
(p. 390) a condition of the Elasmobranch ovary which is so far very 
similar to that which I have just described, and which gives me 
greater confidence in stating that the cells displayed in fig. 1, fé, of 
Plate LII. are really germinal and not stroma-cells. 
He says (p. 391) :—‘*The surface of the ovarian region .. . is 
covered by a distinct ... pseado-epithelium ... The cells of the 
pseudo-epithelium have one peculiarity very unlike that of ordinary 
epithelial cells. Their inner extremities are prolonged into fibrous 
processes which enter the subjacent tissue, and, bending nearly 
parallel to the surface of the ovary, assist in forming the tunic 
spoken of above. This peculiarity of the pseudo-epithelial cells 
seems to indicate that they do not essentially differ from cells which 
have the character of undoubted connective-tissue cells, and renders 
