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Show 1884.] DISEASES OF CARNIVOROUS MAMMALS. 185 ovary. Hanging from the fold of peritoneum between the ovary and Fallopian tube (meso-salpinx) is a cyst of the size of a cherry attached by a narrow peduncle, whilst scattered among the fringes of the open end of the Fallopian tube, are numerous pedunculated cysts the size of millet-seeds. These are shown in the annexed drawing (figs. 3,4, p. 184). The solid cysts, when examined microscopically, proved to be hypertrophied corpora lutea. This case is of extreme interest on account of the relation it bears to similar growths in human subjects. Among the numerous growths originating in the immediate neighbourhood of the ovary in the human female, many of which attain gigantic proportions, two very distinct forms may be readily separated :- 1. Cysts peculiar to the ovary and originating in Graafian follicles. 2. Cysts of the broad ligaments, which, if they attain to any size, may secondarily involve the ovary in the course of their growth. Careful observation has led to the view that cysts starting in the broad ligaments arise in connexion with the " organ of Rosen-miiller." This structure and its connecting ducts, lying in the meso-salpinx, is in itself of very great interest, inasmuch as it represents, with the duct of Gaertner, all that remains in the adult female of the Wolffian duct and segmental tubes so largely developed in early embryonic life. In the adult female these must be regarded as functionless organs. Pathologists have long been aware that functionless structures and remnants of organs are exceedingly liable to take on diseased action ; hence it is now the accepted view that the cysts so often found in the broad ligament are to be regarded as abnormal dilatations of these pre-existing ducts, remnants of the segmental tubes and ducts of the Wolffian body ; therefore it is extremely interesting to find in the ovary of this Tiger the disease in its incipient condition. The interest, however, does not end here, for although I have searched far and wide, this is the first case of its kind which has come to hand. At the outset I mentioned that this particular animal was born in confinement, and must to a certain extent be regarded as a domestic animal. Dogs are occasionally the subject of well-developed ovarian disease ; so it is very singular that a disease so prevalent in the human female, met with in the common bitch, and seemingly exceedingly rare in wild animals, should turn up in a Tiger which was born in confinement and passed a long life in the captive state. A curious case of difficult parturition was seen in a Jackal. One morning I found the creature on the Prosector's table with a distended belly ; on cutting into this, two young ones were found loose in the peritoneal cavity, whilst a third was jammed, head downwards, into the pelvis, and there tightly fixed. Examination proved that labour had commenced, but from some cause or other the vagina and neck of the uterus had split on the posterior aspect, and the young had been expelled from the uterus into the peritoneal cavity. The cause of the difficulty may have been the smallness of the pelvic outlet, but I think the foetuses must have been of unusual size. The PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1884, No. XIII. 13 |
