Cystic Degeneration of the Ovaries 165 



ultimately atrophy completely, except upon the margin of the external zone, 

 where there are still seen a few vessels. 



It is precisely this non-vascularity which is generally typical of the cyst 

 walls investigated by us and, according to our view, constitutes the best in- 

 dication for the explanation of the development of cysts from Graafian fol- 

 licles. 



After the follicle has ruptured there occurs, in its place, the residual body, 

 corpus luteum. It is a more or less spheroidal body, attaining a variable 

 size, according to whether impregnation has occurred or not. In the first in- 

 stance, it becomes extraordinarily large. It may exceed by several times the 

 volume of the gland itself and persists throughout the period of pregnancy, 

 to disappear only after birth. We ha,ve in this instance to deal with the cor- 

 pus luteum vera, or the yellow body of pregnancy. In the latter instance, it 

 remains smaller and disappears a few weeks later ; here we have to do with 

 a corpus lutea spurium, or the yellow body of estrum. 



Among the alleged causes of the formation of these larger corpora lutea 

 and their longer duration, are increased or decreased blood supply to the 

 ovary during the period of pregnancy. Schulin sees the cause for the 

 greater growth of the true corpus luteum in the decreased supply of nutri- 

 ment to the ovary. In this connection, from observations made in path- 

 ology, he emphasizes the fact that soft granulation masses persist, not in 

 vigorous, but only in feeble, sickly men. Bonnet states explicitly that the 

 disappearance of the yellow body is delayed because the ovary becomes 

 anaemic owing to the fact that, during pregnancy, the hypereemia of estrum 

 becomes stable in the uterus, vagina, etc., as he has been able repeatedly 

 to demonstrate to his personal satisfaction. Holzl takes directly the oppo- 

 site view. According to him, the ovaries should receive a larger amount of 

 nutrition during pregnancy owing to the increased fiow of blood to the 

 genitals. He believes that, during pregnancy, the ovaries hypertrophy, 

 whereas a badly nourished organ does not. According to his view, the true 

 corpus luteum. persists for a longer period because, during pregnancy, there 

 is a regular diapedesis and hemorrhage into the yellow body so that one 

 finds, in gravid animals and those in the puerperal state, yellow bodies, 

 which are greatly enlarged as a consequence of hemorrhages into them and 

 have in their center a well-defined blood clot, completely enclosed. Similar 

 observations have not yet been made in the cow since, in this animal, 

 hemorrhage into the follicular cavities is unimportant or wholly absent. 

 Hence the alleged causes for the longer continuation of the yellow bodies 

 -which have been observed in woman are not present in cattle. 



The corpus luteum consists of a brownish-yellow or ochre-yellow capsular 

 layer, which contains lutein cells, and a soft, gray, transparent nucleus, 

 which consists of newly formed connective tissue containing few cells and 

 supplied with blood vessels ; sometimes there exists blood debris derived 

 from cells which have undergone disintegration or fatty degeneration, per- 

 haps mixed with cells, connective tissue fibres, etc. As the yellow body 

 undergoes retrograde changes, there develops a form of connective tissue, 

 which contracts to constitute the corpus fibrosum albicans. The remnant 

 then represents merely the contracted nucleus of the yellow body, corpus 



