ORGANS OF INTERNAL SECRETION 317 



ascribe the degenerative changes to an insufficiency in the blood 

 supply consequent upon the operation of removal, while SokolofE ^ 

 and Buys and Vandervelte ^ have supposed these changes to be 

 due to a severance of nerves passing to the uterus. 



In a series of experiments performed recently ^ upon the 

 effects of ovariotomy in rabbits, it was found that the extent 

 to which the degenerative process was carried was roughly 

 proportional to the time which had elapsed between the opera- 

 tion and the killing of the animal. After an interval of six and 

 a half months the uterus was found to be in a condition of pro- 

 nounced fibrosis and to contain no glands. The epithelium 

 was much attenuated, and the muscle fibres were broken up. 

 A few small capillaries, however, could still be seen in the 

 stroma. The Fallopian tubes also underwent atrophy. In 

 other experiments in which the ovaries were removed from 

 very young immature rabbits, which were killed after they 

 had grown up, it was found that the uteri, although they had 

 undergone shght development, were quite infantile, being no 

 larger than those of rats. The Fallopian tubes were affected 

 similarly. In all these experiments great care was taken to 

 avoid interference with the blood supply to the uterus, the 

 uterine branches of the pelvic vessels and the anastomotic branch 

 of the ovarian artery being left uninjured. Furthermore, in 

 certain other cases in which hysterectomy was performed instead 

 of ovariotomy, and which, therefore, may be regarded as con- 

 trols to the first series of experiments, the extirpation of the 

 uterus had no arresting influence on the growth and nutrition of 

 the ovaries (see p. 348). 



Other and more conclusive evidence in support of the theory 

 that the ovary is an organ of internal secretion is suppUed by the 

 results of various attempts to transplant ovaries. The cases of 

 Morris, Glass, Dudley, and Cramer, who transplanted ovaries 

 from one woman to another, are described below in discussing 

 the causes of the menstrual function (p. 331). 



' Sokoloff, " Ueber den Einfluss der Ovarienextirpation auf Structur- 

 veranderungen des Uterus," Arch. f. Gynak., vol. li., 1896. 



^ Buys and Vandervelte, " Kecherches Experimentales sur les l&ions 

 consecutives Ji I'Ovariotomie Double," Arch. Ital. de Biol., vol. xxi., 1894. 



' Carmiohael and Marshall, " The Correlation of the Ovarian and Uterine 

 Functions," Proc. Roy. Soc. B., vol. Ixxix., 1907. 



