An account of two cases in which an ovule, or its remains, was discovered after death in the fallopian tube of the unimpregnated human female, during the period of menstruation

Abstract

At the commencement of the paper the author refers to the opinions of Drs. Power, Lee, Paterson, Barry, Girdwood, and Wharton Jones of this country, and also to those of MM. Valentin, Negrier, Pouchet, Gendrin, Raciborski, and Bischoff on the continent, respecting the supposed nature of the physiological phenomena manifested during the peirod of menstruation; and he mentions the law of Bischoff, namely, that “the ova formed in the ovaries of the females of all mammiferous animals, including the human female, undergo a periodical maturation and exclusion quite independently of the influence of the male seminal fluid. At these periods, known as those of 'heat' or 'the rut' in quadrupeds, and 'menstruation' in the human female, the ova which have become mature, disengage themselves from the ovary and are extruded. If the union of the sexes takes place at this period, the ovum is fecundated by the direct action of the semen upon it, but if no union of the sexes occurs, the ovum is nevertheless evolved from the ovary, and enters the Fallopian tube where it perishes.”