The ovarian cell : its origin and characteristics / by T.M. Drysdale.

  • Drysdale, Thomas M.
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The ovarian cell : its origin and characteristics / by T.M. Drysdale. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    both in extravasations and in the false membranes seen on mucous and serous membranes. In ovarian fluids these bodies were first described and delineated in 1852 by John Hughes Bennett, with indication of the effect which acetic acid has on them. They are not cells but nuclei. Dr. Drysdale has himself pointed out the fact that they never have a nucleus, which is quite natural if they are themselves nuclei. These nuclei are in a state of fatty de- generation as seen by the clear, highly refracting globules in their interior. They are never found in the quite young, microscopical cysts, developed in the wall of larger cysts, while we seldom miss them in the latter. In Case XXXII.' I was able to observe directly the identity of Drysdale's cor- puscles, the colorless corpuscles with fine dark granules, and the nuclei of the epithelial cells. The fluid contained flakes large enough to be visible to the naked eye. Some of these showed still indistinct outlines of cells, some of which con- tained nuclei in every respect identical with the Drysdale corpuscles found in the surrounding fluid. In others, most of the cells were no longer recognizable as such, having been dissolved and blended together into a thready mass with holes in it. In this mass and in these holes were found nuclei, — some with fine dark, others with shining, granules. In a few places this nucleus could still be seen embedded in its cell, or a cell was seen without nucleus, but full of large, shining granules, in other words, changed into a large Bennett's corpuscle. I have followed the same pro- cess in the walls of minute microscopical cysts. When we examine them at their very first appearance, when a cav- ity begins to be formed in an epithelial pouch, we find that they contain exclusively colorless corpuscles without shining granules, and corresponding entirely in size and shape with the nuclei seen in the surrounding epithelium. In these minute cysts, then, a melting process is going on. The bodies of the epithelial cells are dissolved by what appears to be a colloid degeneration, and the nuclei set free. In secondary cysts as large as a hazel-nut, I have found large masses of the epithelial lining thrown off, and forming flakes