ON RESULTS OF REMOVAL AND TRANSPLANTATION OF OVARIES. 591 



Effects of Castration. 



With the object of observing what changes, if any, are brought about in the uterus 

 by the removal of the ovaries, we have performed ovariotomy in thirty-three rats. 

 Both ovaries were removed by an anterior median incision. The rats were killed at 

 periods varying from two and a half to eight months after operation, and the uterus 

 examined histologically. In the great majority of cases the uterus has been found to 

 exhibit divergence from the normal in a greater or less degree. It is small and atrophied. 

 The mucosa is thin and poor in cells, the mucosal glands are small, while the connective 

 tissue is increased in amount. In some cases, as in fig. 6, which represents a uterus 

 examined six months after castration, the histological changes are very marked : the 

 muscular wall is thinned and its connective tissue increased ; the mucous membrane is 

 in a condition of great fibrous overgrowth, and the glands are hardly recognisable. 



All stages of degeneration can be seen from the condition found about two months 

 after operation, where the uterus is small and shows commencing atrophy, to the 

 extreme degree described above. 



In several cases the uterus was found to have become distended with clear fluid, and 

 on microscopical examination the uterine wall was seen to be thinned, the mucosa being 

 represented only by a few cells and some fibrous tissue, and the lining epithelium 

 converted into a stratified squamous epithelium. 



In more than one instance an appearance resembling endometritis was observed 

 after castration, the mucosa being swollen and the epithelium desquamated. There was 

 in these cases no inflammation at the site of operation nor obvious source of septic infec- 

 tion, and the condition may probably be interpreted as a degenerative one. 



In one case, where no atrophic appearances were presented by the uterus, a small 

 portion of one ovary, in which at least two corpora lutea had become developed, was 

 found, on post-mortem examination, to have been left behind at the operation. 



The effect produced upon the uterus by removing the ovaries, and transplanting 

 them to abnormal positions, will be discussed after we have described our experiments 

 on ovarian transplantation. 



Ovarian Transplantation. 



The grafting of various organs of the body (such as the thyroid, suprarenal, kidney, 

 etc.) in abnormal positions in the same individual, or in normal or abnormal positions in 

 other individuals, has been attempted by numerous investigators with a varying amount 

 of success. As a general rule, heteroplastic transplantation (i.e. from one individual 

 to another) has been found far more difficult to carry out than homoplastic trans- 

 plantation (i.e. in the same individual) ; while the latter, in the case of many organs, has 

 not so far been successfully accomplished. 



Transplantation of the testis has been attempted by Ribbert (1898), but without 

 success, the grafted organ undergoing a rapid degeneration. Shattock and Seligmann 



