The human female ovary, with reference to corpora lutea, both true and false / by Frank Renaud.

  • Renaud, F. (Frank), 1819-1904.
Date:
[1845]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The human female ovary, with reference to corpora lutea, both true and false / by Frank Renaud. 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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    putting a sudden period to their flow, by a cessation of the cause originally exciting them. A study of the comparative anatomy and physiology of this sub- : ject shows, that the lower the class of animals, the greater the fa- cility with which ova effect an escape into the ducts; whilst the reverse rule obtains in the human subject. Hence it is, that ana- tomists and physiologists appear to err so much, in conducting experiments upon lower animals, and thence educing hypotheses by which to account for identical phenomena in organized beings, wherein the structures no less than the functions are dissimilar. There does not appear to exist any near sympathy between laws regulating the uterine and ovarian functions in ruminating animals and man,—the sequences common to lower mammalians in respect to the generative system being only partial in their influence over the human female. The theory that would indicate each menstrual period to be co- existent with the secretion of a small yellow body in the ovaries, requires facts much more imperative than any as yet advanced. To assert that a recent yellow body, with or without an internal coagulum of blood or fibrine, is never seen except menstrual oestrum or conception can be traced, is not proof adequate to establish as a physiological law, that menstruation never happens without its pre- sence. If dates taken during the life-time of an individual, and pathological examinations made subsequent to death, be of any value, then all who have made special search for the appearances in question, must have remarked how small the number of them fre- quently is, and how very irregular they are in appearance—the presence of spurious corpora lutea being discernible longer than two months, at the lowest calculation. Rather, therefore, than be forced into the opinion, that the menstrual periods in women are of much less regularity than is generally supposed, it seems preferable to receive with caution a theory that requires so much show of in- genuity for its establishment, and which, by this very fact, demon- strates a weakness in some of its connecting parts. Very few ovaria found after death in women of the child-bearing period, fail to develope within their substance appearances refer- rible to vascular excitation; e.g. yellow bodies, with or without coagula, abortive of true conceptive corpora lutea; or yellow bodies, more diminutive in size, lined internally by a very thin black mem- brane; or jet black bodies, triangular or oval in shape, placed near to, and close up to the surface, with or without corresponding cica- trices; or more solid black bodies, resembling shot corns, occasion- ally found nearer the centre of the ovary, and without any connec- tion with its periphery. As respects the first of these appearances, viz. the yellow bodies, with or without coagula, there is evidence enough collected to prove, that towards each menstrual epoch a perceptible and rapid develop-