The male generative organs in health and disease, from infancy to old age : being a complete practical treatise on the anatomy and physiology of the male system ... / by Frederick Hollick.

  • Hollick, Frederick, 1818-1900.
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The male generative organs in health and disease, from infancy to old age : being a complete practical treatise on the anatomy and physiology of the male system ... / by Frederick Hollick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Lamar Soutter Library, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Lamar Soutter Library at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

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    and in each of those cells is contained one of the germs or eggs, surrounded by a white fluid like the white of an egg. These cells are termed the Graafian Vesicles, after the Anatomist Graaf, who first described them • they are about as large, when fully developed, as a small pea, but are not all of the same size at once, some being small or merely rudimentary, and others approaching per- fection. Before the age of puberty these cells and the eggs they contain, are all undeveloped and small, but at that time their gradual and successive development commences. It is found, from recent observations, that only one of them is perfected at a time, and that it requires a certain period before another can be produced. In the adult ovary therefore we find them at every stage, some being only in the rudimentary state, others just com- mencing to grow, and others having attained a con- siderable size, there being always one more ripe than any of the others, and evidently approaching to perfection. When the egg is fully developed it is thrown out of the Ovary, and after a time makes its escape from the body, in a very curious manner only recently discovered. There are therefore two different actions performed by the Ovaries, first the forming or developing of the eggs in successive order, and secondly, the expulsion of them from the Ovary, and ultimately from the body. This development of the eggs it must be remem- bered is entirely independent of sexual union or ex- citement, and is totally unconnected with conception, except as a preparation for it. In every female, whether virgin or not, from the age of puberty till the turn of life in old age, this development of the