OBSTETRICS

AXEL WESTMAN (The Journal of Obstetrics and Gynrecology of the British Empire, October, 1937) reports the results of investigations that he has made into the transit of ova in woman. After a review of the literature back to 1858, he summarizes experimental work that he carried out on monkeys and reported in previous papers. In his investigations of the problem in the human being, he took steps. when operating to inject a drop of lipiodol under the tunioa albuginea of the ovary at the upper and lower poles so that the organ could be visualized by X rays at a later date. Nine cases were studied by the author. He found that in seven of them there was considerable movement of the ovary, a condition that he had proved to occur in monkeys. The ligaments of the uterus, tubes and ovaries contain much smooth muscle tissue. Therefore the tubes and ovaries are capable of considerable movement. In conjunction with the injection into the ovaries, utero-salpingography was carried out to verify the anatomical relationship of the ovary and tube. Serial photographs were taken in several cases. Some of these photographs show that the ovaries move cranially and caudally as well as laterally and medially. The ovary may also rotate on its axis, and the tube may curve round the ovary in a bow-shaped manner. The author has come to the conclusion that, on account of this mobility, the infundibulum at the time of ovulation can be placed in direct contact with the ovary, which, through rotary movements, has the power of turning its various surfaces towards the ostium abdominale tubre. In such circumstances the ova liberated from the ovary undoubtedly will never enter the general abdominal cavity, but will be directly transferred from the rup, tured follicle to the Fallopian tube.