Certain physiological questions intimately connected with the foregoing history of the development and involution of the ovarian fol licle ruay now be briefly considered. And first it may be asked— Does the discharge of ova fronz the ovary take place independently of sexual intercourse, or of any kind of influence from the male This question has long ceased to be agitated with reference to animals lower in the scale than the Mammalia. It need, therefore, now only be considered in its relation to the latter, including Man. And since many have recently undertaken to prove that Man and the Marn Inaba constitute no exception to the general rule that in all classes of the animal kingdom which produce and emit ova the act of emis sion of ova is independent of the male, so, whatever form the inquiry tnay now take, it would naturally have for its chief object the determination of the value of the evidence upon which such an assertion has been based.
Now, the facility with which the process of ovulation may be observed in animals justifies the expectation that in such a case the amount of objective proof, collected by those who have undertaken to establish a law of spon taneous ovulation in Mammalia, would be sufficient to prove that law beyond the possi bility of question. But when we turn to the principal writers who have devoted their at tention to this point, with the view of collect ing and critically examining such evidence, it must be confessed that the result is productive of a certain feeling of disappointment at the form in which the facts have been recorded, and the circumstances under which the obser vations and experiments have generally been made.
This is more particularly felt when, after examination of the evidence adduced, an unhesitating acceptance of the law, as one of universal application, is demanded. Be fore, however, the question of universality is considered, it will suffice, for the purpose of proving the possibility of a spontaneous ovi pont, to give one or two examples in which all the conditions necessary to establish this fact were observed, viz., absence of coitus, rupture of the ovarian follicle, and the presence of the unimpregnated ovum in the oviduct.
The following case is related by Bischoff.* A lamb which had never received the male, and which had exhibited signs of " heat " about an hour previously, was shut up alone. On the following morning the male was admitted (for the purpose of testing the heat). He several times showed a desire for the coitus, but was prevented. The animal was killed the same afternoon, when it was found that a Graafian vesicle in the right ovary had burst. The spot did not project from the surface of the ovary, but attracted attention by the circle of red vessels surrounding the small opening which constitutes a familiar appearance in dogs and rabbits after bursting of a follicle. The diameter of this opening was about r. As a matter of precaution, search was made for spermatozoa, in order to obtain the negative certainty that no coition had taken place, but none were found. The infundibulum con
tained a thread of mucus intermixed with granules resembling those of the membrana granulosa. The Fallopian tube was next carefully examined, and at a distance of 5"' from its entrance was found an ovum still surrounded by the cells of the granular disc, and possessing all the characters of the unim pregnated ovarian ovum.
But since in this instance the presence of the male was permitted, though coitus was prevented, as was also the case in one half of the instances recorded by Bischoff in his ce lebrated Treatise from which this example is quoted, it may be well to notice another ob servation taken froni Raciborski +, in which this possible objection was removed.
A bitch which had never been covered, and was just commencing to be in heat, was kept shut up for eight days, apart from other dogs.
It was then killed. Only one ovary was ex _ ammed, the other having been laid aside and forgotten. Three large follicles of a lively red occupied the entire surface of the ovary. One of these follicles was already shrunk, and presented at its summit a distinct fissure. In each cornu of the uterus, an ovum, the size of a poppy-seed, was found, surrounded by bloody mucus, — the one at a distance of about 2I inches, and the other at of an inch from the extrernities of the tubes. Doubt less, if the other ovary had been examined, at least one follicle would have been found to have opened there also.
In ostler to show that the same process of discharge of the ovum, independent of sexual congress, may take place in the human subject, a case, recorded by Dr. Letheby, may he here quoted* :—" The body of a lunatic, aged 23, who had died in St. Luke's Hos pital:was examined. She had been a patient in that institution for eleven months, under circumstances which deprived her of the op portunity of associating with a male for a long period before her death. It was ascertained that the girl had quitted life during a men strual period ; the cavity of the uterus, and the Fallopian tubes, contained a red, jelly-like secretion. On the outer and lower part of the right ovary was a dark livid spot, in the centre of which was a hole. On making a section of the ovary so as to divide it through the spot and an adjacent cicatrix, it was per ceived that the hole led into a cavity which was surrounded by a dark-red tissue, and that the cicatrix communicated with a very per fectly-formed cmpus luteum, having a central cavity containing a dark-red clot. In the right Fallopian tube was discovered a little globular body of the size of a pin's head. This was seen, under the microscope, to consist, in its outer surface, of a mass of nucleated cells. At one end of this mass was a transparent ring, enclosing a rather opaque granular mass, in which there was an eccentric spot." The author had no doubt that this was the ovule consisting of the zona pellucida, yolk, and germinal vesicle. In another case related at the same titne, and where the hymen was per fect, similar results were obtained.