ally with a pulpy substance like decidua. The muscularity is distinct, and the orbicular direction of the fibres round the orifice of the tubes very evident. The substance is whitish. The intestines have not yet assumed the same order as usual; but the distended cæcum is often more prominent than the rest. It is a month, at least, before the uterus returns to its natural state, but the os uteri rarely, if ever, closes to the same degree as in the virgin state."
The ovaria are susceptible of very considerable enlargement by diseases, so as to occasion the appearance of pregnancy, the most common of which is dropsy; in some cases the whole substance is converted into a capsule containing fluid, so large as to occupy nearly the whole cavity of the abdomen. There is one phenomenon, connected with the morbid anatomy of these organs, that deserves particular notice in this work, as being a subject in some degree connected with judicial enquiry—the change of these parts into a fatty substance containing hair and teeth! these appearances have been often regarded as imperfect ova, in consequence of impregnation, but it should be generally known that they take place without any intercourse between the sexes, and appear to depend upon causes very remote from those to which we allude.[1] In our examination of the ovaria, it is essential to remark whether any corpus luteum be present; and upon this subject and the value of its indications, it will be necessary to offer a few remarks. The corpora lutea are oblong glandular bodies, found in the ovaria of pregnant animals; they have been regarded as the calyces, from which
- ↑ See a paper in the Philosophical Transactions, no. 309, p. 2387, entitled "Balls of hair taken from the uterus and ovaria of several women, by Mr. James Yonge."
