The periodical maturation and extrusion of ova, independently of coitus, in mammalia and man, proved to be the primary condition to their propagation / Translated from the German by Henry Smith.

  • Bischoff, Th. Ludw. Wilh. (Theodor Ludwig Wilhelm), 1807-1882
Date:
1845
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The periodical maturation and extrusion of ova, independently of coitus, in mammalia and man, proved to be the primary condition to their propagation / Translated from the German by Henry Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    research, for he has to do with things which are not easily ascertained. The errors of centuries, not indifferent about the question, prove this. I hope to be able to meet well-grounded doubts, and wiU at once proceed to re¬ move one such, which has already been frequently opposed to me. I have often been asked, If conception be dependent on menstruation, and this again on the maturation of an ovum, how does it occur that women have frequently conceived who had never menstruated ^ My reply is the simple statement, that although the secretion of blood be a normal, and the most striking phenomenon which accompanies the matu¬ ration of an ovum, yet it is by no means indissolubly connected with it. This is proved by the first glance at the animal kingdom, where this periodical maturation of the ova often occurs with, hut more frequently without such a secretion. In the human female it is altogether a normal and important phenomenon, but by no means one which is essential,—it is only accidental. It may be absent, but mature ova may nevertheless be developed, and therefore also become impregnated. This will readily harmonize with what experience shews, that in general such women are also altogether free from any abnormal symptoms. Again, many will no doubt question the law laid down, on the ground that it is scarcely conceivable that so important a circumstance should have escaped observation altogether, and especially that of anatomists and physicians, during their numerous disputes respecting the corpora lutea. To this I would reply, that it is quite true many striking points were long since known; as, for example, the dependence of fruitfulness in the female upon menstruation, the admission of the fact that conception takes place more readily immediately after menstruation, the reckoning of pregnancy according to the last appearance of that function, and the like. The reason why these observations did not lead to the full knowledge of the matter lies no doubt in the frequent recurrence of the menstrual period, or the maturation of an ovum, and possibility of a conception. If women menstruated only once or twice in a year, it would long since have been remarked that such was the only time when conception was possible ; menstruation would long ago have been recognised as perfectly analogous to the heat” in animals, even though the most essential element of it, namely, the maturation of ova, had not been discovered. The possibility of conception, however, is, on the one hand, so frequently repeated, in consequence of the menstrual period occurring every four weeks, that, in the absence of farther data, it was not easily possible to fix the point of time with which it was connected more accurately; and, on the other hand, menstruation passes over so frequently without its purpose, con¬ ception, being attained, that the attention must naturally have been directed more to that function than to the dependence of conception upon it. With regard to animals, it was the precisely opposite relation of