Observations on corpora lutea. Part 1 [-2] / By Robert Paterson, M.D., physician to the Leith Dispensary.

  • Paterson, Robert, 1814-1889.
Date:
[1840?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on corpora lutea. Part 1 [-2] / By Robert Paterson, M.D., physician to the Leith Dispensary. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    are so frequently to be found in the bodies of children and of vir¬ gins, and which have therefore been denominated false or virgin corpora lutea. It is my intention in the following communication to consider, first. The appearances presented by the true corpus luteum in its early stages, anatomical position, and time and mode of disap¬ pearance ; secondly, The different kinds of false corpora lutea. The great practical question of the means of distinguishing’' these bodies will fall to be considered under the latter divison of my subject. Part I.—True Corpora Lutea ; external appear¬ ance of the impregnated Ovary. The ovarium in the unimpregnated condition and during the child-bearing period of life is a small white flattened oval body. It is composed internally of dense cellular tissue, containing nume¬ rous imbedded vesicles, and is covered externally by two tunics, the proper cellular tissue of the ovary and the peritoneum. Upon im¬ pregnation occurring, a greater quantity of blood than usual is sent to the ovary, which has been the seat of conception. Around the Graafian vesicle about to discharge the ovule, the vessels become numerous and gorged with blood, and in the vesicle itself is com¬ menced a processs by which its contents are increased, and its walls thickened. This process, we shall afterwards have reason to be¬ lieve, is of the nature of inflammation. The result of this general turgescence of the ovary, the increas¬ ed quantity of fluid in the Graafian vesicle, and the formation of a substance around it, is the gradual pressure of it against the ex¬ ternal coverings of the ovary, through the coats of which, as wrell as those of the vesicle itself, a small aperture is formed for the purpose of permitting the escape of the ovule. Upon the occur¬ rence of this event, an effusion of blood immediately takes place, which fills up the now more or less partially emptied cavity of the Graafian vesicle, and the aperture through which the ovule has escaped. When the ovary, therefore, is examined shortly after the evolu¬ tion of the ovule, it is observed externally to be much increased in size, and in one or other extremity an enlargement is gene¬ rally to be seen, most commonly of the size of a hazel-nut, but sometimes larger. At this early period the protuberance is always of a bluish red or dark purple colour, with numerous vessels, ramifying over its surface. These vessels are generally filled with florid blood, which contrasts beautifully with the dark colour of the subjacent parts. On examining the surface of this dark portion, a minute cica¬ trix or depression is always to be observed, and even an aperture