60 
DR. LETHEBV ON THE EXTRUSION OF OVULES 
the Fallopian tubes, was much the same as the preceding, excepting that the number 
of the blood-discs was considerably less ; that there was a greater abundance of 
ciliated epithelium ; and that the fluid in which the elements floated was not gela- 
tinous, but serous (see fig. 4). 
A consideration of the facts thus presented to notice, led me to conclude that the 
girl had died at the very onset of a catamenial period, for I could not discover any 
evidence of the occurrence of an external flow ; in fact, the secretion found in the 
vagina was not very abundant, and it had acquired only a pale rose tint. 
On instituting a further inquiry into the case, I ascertained that the periodical 
flux had taken place exactly one week before the woman made the attempt on her 
life ; and with regard to the subsequent history of the case, it may be said that she 
was laid up with the wound in her throat for a period of twenty-four days before her 
death, nineteen of which were passed in a separate ward of the Hospital, where, in 
consequence of her very distressing condition, she was closely watched by a female 
attendant, so that it is hardly possible that sexual intercourse could have been effected 
during that period of time. 
While I was engaged in the investigation of the preceding case, I received from 
my friend Dr. Parker of Finsbury Square, who had assisted me in the foregoing 
inquiry, another uterus and its appendages, which he had removed from the body of 
a lunatic aged twenty-three. This girl had died, and was examined in St. Luke’s 
Hospital, where she had been a patient for eleven months, under circumstances 
which deprived her of the opportunity of associating with a male for a long period 
before her death. 
The information obtained by inquiries of the attendant at St. Luke’s, as well as 
by an examination of the organs themselves, led me to conclude that the girl had 
quitted life during the catamenial period ; for the pelvic viscera were much congested, 
the uterus was considerably enlarged, its vessels were turgid, and its cavity contained 
a red jelly-like matter; besides which, the Fallopian tubes were filled with a thick 
muco-sanguineous secretion, and the right ovary presented a dark livid spot on its 
outer and lower part : many cicatrices were also found on the surfaces of both the 
-ovaries. As in the last case, the livid spot had a hole in its centre ; and, on making 
a section of the ovary so as to divide it through the spot and an adjacent cicatrix, 
I perceived that the hole led into a cavity, which was surrounded by a deep red tissue, 
and that the cicatrix communicated with a very perfectly formed corpus luteum, 
having a central cavity containing a dark red clot (see fig. 7 and preparation). 
The matter contained in the right Fallopian tube was submitted to careful exami- 
nation, by which means 1 discovered a little globular body that had the size of a 
small pin’s head. This body was transferred, as in the last case, to water; then placed 
between two pieces of glass, and examined under the microscope with a power of 
100. The outer constituents of the mass were precisely like those of the preceding; 
that is, they consisted of Nucleated cells, arranged so as to form a shaggy, but tolerably 
