114 THE PHYSIOLOGY OF REPRODUCTION 



vesicles of various sizes, each with an ovum, surrounded by an 

 epithehum. These are called Graafian folUcles. Certain other 

 structures, consisting of very large yellow-coloured ceDs en- 

 closed by a branching network of connective tissue, are also 

 often found. These are the corpora lutea or discharged folhcles 

 to be described more fullv later. The stroma contains, further, 

 a varying number of epitheloid interstitial cells. 



In order to gain a proper understanding of the structural 



Fig. 19. — Section through ovary of cat. (From Schron.) 



1, Outer surface; 1', attached border; 2, fibrous central stroma; 3, peri- 

 pheral stroma ; 4, blood-vessels ; 5, young follicles ; 6, 7, 8, 9, and 9', 

 larger developing follicles ; 10, corpus luteum. 



and functional relations of the different parts of the ovary, 

 it is necessary to make some study of its developmental history. 

 Pfliiger ^ appears to have been the first to regard the ova ^ 

 and epithehal cells of the Graafian folhcles as originating either 

 in the form of ingrowths simulating tubular glands, or as sohd 

 columns of cells from that embryonic layer which Waldeyer 

 afterwards designated the germinal epithehum. The tubular 

 ingrowths had already been noticed by Valentin,^ who, however, 



^ Pfliiger, Ueber die Eierstocke der Sdugethiere und des Menschen, Leipzig, 

 1867. 



' The mammalian ovum was discovered by von Baer (Ueber Entwicke- 

 lungsgeschichte der Thiere-Beobachtung und Rejlexion, vol. i. , Konigsberg, 1828). 

 In 1861 Gegenbaur showed that the vertebrate ovum was a single cell. 



' Valentin, " Ueber die Entwickelung der FoUikel in dem Eierstocke der 

 Saugethiere," Midler's Arch., 1838. 



