Fig. Unica. Ovum ovaricum fœtiferum patefactum.

The cavity formed in the substance of the ovarium by the progressive advancement of the fecundated ovum, is here laid open, in order to exhibit how distinctly and perfectly the fœtus had, up to the time of the death of the mother, found station, nourishment and growth without the assistance of the cavity of the uterus, or of those membranes which physiologists are wont to look upon as essential to the development of the child in utero.

A placental mass with distinct cotyledonous vessels, connects the child with the inner covering of the ovarian cyst. The secreting or transparent involucra are quite distinct. The cortex ovi is almost wholly absorbed, as it ought to be at such an advanced period. The fœtus is perfect.

REFERENCES TO THE PLATE.

A, the amnion. B, the chorion. C C C, the placental cotyledons. D D D, fragments of the corpus luteum, which surrounded the ovum, and was broken to pieces by the enlargement of the fœtus. Some of these fragments adhere to the inside of the ovarian coat, others are among the placental cotyledons. E E E E the covering or coat of the ovarium; F the Fallopian tube, which passes behind the flap of the ovarian coat thrown back. G the omentum, &c.

REMARKS.

The paper, accompanied by the drawings from which the Plates, (so kindly lent me for my present purpose by the Council of the Royal Society) were engraved, was transmitted by me to that scientific body in June 1819; and was honoured with a place among the Philosophical Transactions for 1820.

The drawings were made for the Royal Society, soon after the death of the patient, by Mr. Bauer, under my inspection, and coloured by him from the preparation, which has remained ever since in my possession, and may be considered as perfectly unique. It is sufficient to mention that gentleman’s name to vouch for the accuracy of every part of this interesting representation. A case so perfect, so indubitable, and so far advanced, of a fecundated Ovarian Ovum had never been recorded before, and completely gainsays the hasty, and I must admit, unwarrantable dictum of a venerable naturalist and philosopher whom I highly esteem, Geoffroy St. Hilaire, who, in a report made to the Institute of France on the subject of Breschet’s memoir, respecting the interstitial extra-uterine gestation already mentioned, ventured to make the following assertions, six years after the publication of my undisputed case of purely ovarian fœtiferous Ovum in the Philosophical Transactions.

“Il n’y a jamais de grossesse Ovarique, dans ce sens que le fœtus puisse se developer dans l’interieur de l’Ovaire; on connaît des cas de fœtus arrivé sur l’Ovaire; mais très certainement l’ovule en était sorti pour n’y rentrer, ni comme œuf, ni comme embryon.”