Observations on the structure of the corpus luteum : and its value as a test of early pregnancy / by Robert Lee.
- Date:
- 1844
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Observations on the structure of the corpus luteum : and its value as a test of early pregnancy / by Robert Lee. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![and pi ejected on the surface of the ovary by somewhat more than half its diameter. The prominent part being covered only by the indusimn of the ovary, the dark- red brown colour of the body shone through. As Mr. Jones has further stated, I was disposed to consider the body in the ovary to be what to the naked eye its general appearance seemed to indicate, viz. a clot of blood containing a flake of fibrine, from which the red corpus- cles had been separated. And on making a fresh section of one of the halves of the body in the same plane as the first, my belief was strengthened that it was not a corpus luteum result- ing from impregnation ; for the appear- ance which presented itself was such, that the naked eye could not well re- cognise it to be any other than that of a clot of blood. The extraordinary manner in which this body projected beyond the surface of the ovarium was the first circumstam e that attracted my attention on examining it, and satisfied me that, although it had a yellowish colour, it was a false corpus luteum, and wholly unconnected with preg- nancy. In no true corpus luteum re- sulting from impregnation had 1 ever witnessed this remarkable projection; but in several false corpora lutea in the Museum of St. George’s Hospital it is so obvious that it immediately attracts attention. The appearance of the mem- brane in the centre of the clot was also widely different from the appearance presented by the empty Graafian vesicle within the yellow matter in all the early corpora lutea resulting from preg- nancy which had ever come under my observation. The absence of the de- cidua within the uterus, the morbid condition of the fallopian tube, the un- usual projection of the body in the ovary, the colour both of the old and fresh sections of it, which presented nothing but the appearance of a clot of blood, were the circumstances that led me to conclude, though totally igno- rant of the history of the case at the time, that it was a false corpus luteum, and did not result from pregnancy. This opinion I expressed to Mr. Whar- ton Jones in the clearest possible man- ner before he commenced the micros- copical examination of the body in the ovary, and during the investigation. Mr. Jones thought that no conclusion should be come to, considering the gravity of a decision on such a point, i until the body had been subjected to a most careful microscopical examina- tion, without which, indeed, he believed it: any decision would be mere guess work • ? coinciding in the propriety of this, I gave over to him one half of the ovary i and the body in it for microscopical 11 examination. Had I been aware that | n the preparation had been four years in alcohol I should not have permitted an M appeal to be made to the microscope at [ft all, knowing how little trust Mr. Jones jtr puts in results obtained under such eir- it cumstances. I would have decided ill with the naked eye that it was a mere it clot of blood in the ovary, and not a lit corpus luteum resulting from preg- fci nancy, and on communicating this in decision to the stranger at Monkwear- i !i mouth, would never have discovered lit the treacherous purpose for which he ? had sent it to me. The incubus would r have lain on Dr. Paterson’s character d neither heavier nor lighter than before, | si and the ridiculous conspiracy into ji which he and his friends had entered would never have been revealed. ;■ “ Examined microscopically,” says ] Mr. Jones, “ the central membranous ( shred was found to present the follow- ( ing structure :— js “ 1. On its free surface a fine film of tessellated epithelium. 2. Invested by | this epithelium was a stratum of finely interwoven transparent fibres, with | dark contours, somewhat like elastic j, tissue. 3. Outside all was a layer j identical in structure with the stroma of the ovary ; the same structure as j that composing the principal thickness i of the walls of Graafian follicles.” “ The membranous processes pos- , sessed a similar structure, and were ‘ found to be continuous with the stroma of the ovary. That part of the body next the substance of the ovary had, by its pressure, so condensed the stroma at the place, that the latter looked somewhat like an external capsule sending pro- cesses inwards, which met and inter- wove with those sent outward by the central membranous shred. But that the appearance of external capsule was '[ the result simply of matting of the stroma of the ovary by pressure, is shown by the circumstance that it was absent at the peripheral part of the clot-like body, there being there, as already said, merely the indusium. “ As to the microscopical characters](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21947995_0010.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
