74 Proceedings of the Royal trish Academy. 



apparatus, after the latter has spread out froui a peri-nuclear to a circum- 

 nuelear position. Moreover, we do not know whether or not the Golgi 

 elements metamorphose into fat, or participate in someway in fat-production : 

 in addition the behaviour of the Golgi elements in the human will probably 

 be found to differ in the luteal cells of the menstrual corpus and of the corpus 

 of pregnancy. 



In the material described in this paper, the woman was a virgin, and her 

 last period had taken place from two to three weeks before ovariotomy was 

 carried out. The stimuli bringing about retrogression could not then have 

 developed far at this period of the woman's oestrus cycle. The luteal cells of 

 lier corpus showed no signs of senescence. I do not wish to say that 

 cytologieally the corpus luteum of pregnancy cannot be differentiated from 

 that of ovulation : but I believe that histologically the two kinds are similar 

 up to the stage when the final disposition of their cellular elements is brought 

 about. 



The question of the further development of the intra-cellular organellae of 

 the lutein elements is quite a different problem ; and I have some definite 

 evidence in that province to bring forward in this present paper. 



In a more recent paper Coi-ner has gone over his previous work, and has 

 re-interpreted some of his older results. IJ e shows that the theca interna cells 

 contain "fat" before invasion of the membrana granulosa sets in, and he 

 declares that there is no evidence that the cells of the theca interna are ever 

 converted into fibroblasts of the usual spindle-cell type, or that they lay down 

 the fibrUs of the close-meshed reticulum which is present in the corpus luteum 

 of the sow. Corner believes that the theca interna elements persist as such 

 throughout pregnancy, but could not express a positive opinion because of the 

 confusing resemblance between some of the theca and some of the "granulosa 

 derivatives. 



Corner's more recent paper is a valuable piece of work, and he has shown 

 clearly that the theca interna cells may approximate very closely to the luteal 

 cells. He mentions slender spindle-shaped cells which insinuate themselves 

 between the granulosa cells. These are possibly the additional cells type 2, of 

 his former paper and the stellate cells of this present paper. Corner could 

 not decide as to their place and manner of origin. 



Eeading the literature on the corpus luteum granules, it is difficult to find 

 any good evidence for the existence of different types of granulations 

 coinciding with the supposed different functional periods. Corner, who does 

 not insist in his paper on coincidence of cy tological structure with physiological 

 action, and Cesa-Bianchi, alone have given any evidence of differential 

 arrangement of intracellular material during different periods. Van der 



