DURING MENSTRUATION. 
61 
compact tunic. At one end of the object, near to its surface, there was a transparent 
ring, enclosing a rather opake granular mass, in which there was an eccentric, 
highly pellucid spot (see fig. 9). I had no doubt that this was the ovule, consisting 
of the zona pelkicida, the yelk and the germinal vesiele ; but, to test the truth of my 
opinion, I subjected the mass to the action of a little strong acetic acid, by which 
means the zona pellucida was still more clearly brought into view ; for it happened 
that the nucleated cells of the membrana granulosa were slightly corrugated by the 
acid, and, as it were, contracted on their contents. They also acquired a greater 
transparency ; and by using a power of 300, the zona presented a distinctly striated 
appearance, and the granules within it were seen to be highly refractive. Lastly, 
the whole object was washed with ether, which dissolved away the fat granules, and 
thus left the zona and vesiele still more distinct. In the place of the yelk there was 
now left a somewhat opake structureless material, which seemed to have been the 
bond of union between the numerous fatty elements of the vitelline mass (see fig. 10). 
The fluid matters contained in the uterus and Fallopian tubes, were identical in 
their physical characters with those noticed in the last case ; and the materials com- 
posing the recently ruptured Graafian follicle were likewise found to consist of blood- 
discs, fibrin and large nucleated cells (see fig. 11). The yellow tissue of the corpus 
luteum was made up of a fibro-cellular stroma, in which there was enclosed a number 
of large granular corpuscles, some of which contained oil-globules ; besides these, 
there was a liquid fat diffused through the tissue, which appeared either as minute 
particles, or as large elongated highly refractive globules that had been produced by 
the union of the smaller elements (see fig. 10). 
Remarks. — An examination of the preceding facts will, I think, justify me in 
coming to the following conclusions ; namely, that ovules escape from the ovaries of 
women during the catamenial flux ; and that the escape of these bodies is spontaneous, 
id est,- that their extrusion takes place independently of sexual intercourse. In these 
respects, the phenomena witnessed are perfectly analogous with those observed by 
Bischoff, Raciborski, Pouchet and others, while they were instituting inquiries into 
the changes which occur in the ovaries of other mammals during the periods of heat 
and rut ; and they are also in accordance with a fact long since ascertained by phy- 
siologists, namely, that there is a periodical maturation and spontaneous extrusion of 
ovules from the ovaries of animals still lower in the scale of creation. Hitherto, 
however, these several circumstances have been regarded only in the light of pro- 
bable analogies ; but I am of opinion that the facts detailed in this paper are quite 
sufficient to identify the phenomena in question, and also to establish the truth of a 
great part of the law enunciated by Bischoff, that is, that the ovules formed in the 
ovaries of females of the human species, and of maramiferous animals, undergo a 
periodical maturation, quite independently of the influence of the male seminal fluid ; 
and that at the periods of menstruation in the one, and heat in the other, the ova 
which have become mature disengage themselves from the ovary, and are extruded 
