122 THE PHYSIOLOGY OF REPRODUCTION 



According to Walsh ^ the growth energy of the granulosa cells in 

 the guinea-pig is slow in small follicles ; then a gradual rise takes 

 place until the follicle attains medium size ; later there is a gradual 

 fall in growth energy until in large follicles the proliferative power 

 sinks almost to zero as maturity is reached. 



The liquor foUiculi begins to form in the developing rat's ovary 

 at about the ninth day of pregnancy.- Miss Lane-Claypon suggests 

 that the karyolytic changes which occur in the nuclei of the follicular 

 epithelial cells may have some connection with the origin of the 



Fig. .3-j. — Young human Graafian follicle. The cavity contains 

 the liquor folliculi. (From Sellheim.) 



liquor. She states, however, that in the process of formation of the 

 liquor folliculi in the adult ovary, the follicle-cells appear simply to 

 disintegrateand dissolve without showing the phenomenaof karyolysis. 

 On the other hand Honorc;' who has investigated the subject in the 



Dasifuras by O'Donoghue ("The Corpus Luteum, etc., and Polyovular Follicles 

 in Dasyiirus" Anat. A/u., vol. xli., 1912). Leo Loeb lia.s discussed the formation 

 of plurioval follicles which he says may oi'iginate either by connective tissue 

 failing to grow between the eggs in an early stage, or by very small follicles 

 pushing their way into larger follicles. Both methods depend upon the 

 inactivit_v of the connective tissue, which is probably due to underfeeding, as 

 Loeb has shown ("The Concrescence of Follicles in the Hypotvpioal Ovary," 

 Biol. Bull., vol. xx\[ii.,imi). 



' Walsh, "The Growth of the Gvarian Follicle of the Guinea-Pig under 

 Normal and Pathological Conditions," Join: Plrjj. Med., vol. xxvi., 1917. 



- Lane-Claypon, loc. cit. 



"' Honore, "Eecherches sur I'Ovarie du Lapin," Arch, de Biol., vol. xvi., 

 1900. 



