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PROFESSOR ARTHUR ROBINSON ON 
of rupture — and this is usually the case — then when the rupture takes place this still 
attached portion of the membrana interna is forced from its anchorage, and, as it is 
extruded, it carries with it long filamentous processes of the follicular cells, which 
frequently drag with them some of the more internal follicular cells ; these processes 
and cells, together with a rapidly exuded fluid which forms a granular coagulum 
under the action of the fixative reagents, and with which white blood corpuscles are 
intermingled, constitutes a tertiary liquor folliculi (figs. 26, 26a, PI. IV ; figs. 27, 
27b, 27c, PI. V). 
For some time after its formation the tertiary liquor folliculi forms an adhesive 
tenacious coagulum which fills that part of the cavity of the follicle which remains 
after the rupture has taken place ; it also plugs the aperture of rupture, and ex- 
tends beyond it into the cavity of the ovarian capsule, its terminal portion always 
inclining towards the orifice of the oviduct (figs. 27, 27a, PI. V ; figs. 31, 33, 
PI. VI). 
Immediately after the rupture the orifice of the follicle is comparatively large, 
but as the plug which occupies it shrinks, the opening gradually becomes smaller 
until it closes. The closure commences externally and terminates internally (see 
figs. 26, 26a, PI. IV; figs. 27, 27a, 28, 30, PI. V; figs. 31-33, 34-37, PI. VI). 
As the orifice in the wall of the follicle closes, the cavity in its anterior usually 
enlarges (figs. 32, 34, 35, PI. VI), though exceptions-are met with, as in the specimen 
shown in fig. 29, PI. V. As the re-enlargement of the cavity proceeds the filamentous 
coagulum of the tertiary liquor folliculi breaks down into a granular detritus, in 
which the granules, which are at first relatively coarse, become finer as the fluid 
content of the redistending follicle increases (figs. 36, 37, 38, PI. VI). 
It has already been noted that vascularisation of the follicular epithelium com- 
mences before the rupture of the follicle occurs (figs. 49, 50, PI. VIII). After the 
rupture has taken place the blood-vessels amidst the follicular epithelium cells 
increase in number, and they penetrate further towards the interior of the follicle, 
until in some cases they approach close to the inner surface of the follicular epithelium 
(fig. 28, PI. V ; figs. 32, 33, 33a, PI. VI). 
Bleeding into the cavity of the follicle does not occur at the time of rupture, and, 
in the majority of cases, no blood enters the cavity of the follicle at any period, but 
haemorrhage occasionally takes place into the cavity of the follicle after the redis- 
tension is completed. 
The redistended follicle, which is the rudiment of the corpus luteum, contains a 
cavity as large as that which was present before rupture. The cavity is filled with 
a fluid containing granules, which are the remnants of the filaments of the tertiary 
liquor folliculi, and amidst the granules there are, not uncommonly, a few white blood 
corpuscles and a few isolated follicle cells in a state of degeneration. 
