CHANGES IN THE OVARY 



123 



probably provide, by their [partial] disintegration, the foUicular 

 secretion upon which the ovum feeds and grows." ^ 



The description given above of the origin of the folHcle 

 and interstitial ceUs apphes especially to the rabbit. Miss Lane- 

 Claypon has also investigated their developmental history in 

 the rat,^ and expresses belief that in this animal also thev are 



pf^Vf 



*V<a 



'fc>H 



^ 





n 



>«s^ »\ 



s: 



Fig. 28. — Ovary at birth, showing primordial follicles, x 300. (From 

 Williams' Obstetrics, Appleton & Go.) 



derived from the germinal epithehum by a similar process of 

 differentiation. Both foUicular epitheUal cells and interstitial 

 cells are stated to pass through identically the same stages, but 

 the latter are said to remain grouped together in the spaces 

 between the folhcles instead of arranging themselves around the 

 diplotenic nuclei of the developing ova. 



' Lane-Claypon, loc. cit. 



' Lane-Claypon, " On Ovogenesis and the Formation of the Interstitial 

 Cells of the Ovary," Jour. Obsiet. and Gyncee., vol. xi., 1907. 



