2 56 Sir Everard Home on the passage of the ovum 
compact glandular substance in which the ovum is formed, 
and, after the ovum is expelled, the blood which fills up the 
cavity is gradually absorbed, leaving a small cavity, which 
marks the place where the ovum had been. 
Upon examining the ovaria of several women who had 
died virgins, and in whom the hymen was too perfect to 
admit of the possibility of impregnation, there were not only 
distinct corpora lutea, but also, as will be found in the pre- 
sent case, small cavities round the edge of the ovarium, evi- 
dently left by ova that had passed out at some former period, 
so that this happens during the state of virginity ; and, as in 
Mr. Cruikshank’s experiments, the fimbriag of the Fallopian 
tube of the rabbit in heat, were found embracing the ovarium, 
although she had not received the male, we cannot doubt, 
that every time a female quadruped is in heat, one or more 
ova pass from the ovarium to the uterus, whether she receives 
the male or not. 
These facts explain the error which physiologists have 
gone into, of mistaking the corpus luteum, in which another 
ovum is forming, for that which belonged to the ovum of the 
present conception, and which at the time of delivery has 
disappeared. 
Mr. Bauer's drawings not only show the changes which 
take place in the ovarium, for the purpose of forming the 
ova, but also the internal surface of the Fallopian tube at the 
time the ovum passes along it in its course to the uterus, 
which I believe has never before been represented. 
The appearances are so clearly shown in the drawings, that 
it is not necessary to describe them : I shall therefore confine 
myself to an explanation of their probable uses. 
The dilatation of this tube, at a small distance from the 
