guished) reached to the surface. Such is the evidence in favour of the view that menstruation consists in the complete removal of a developed decidua. According to this view the decidua is developed by proliferation of the elements of the next layer of the muscular wall, which is regarded not as a muscle but as a modified mucous membrane-containing all the elements necessary for the production of a decidua: and that such decidua is gradually developed from the time when degeneration sets in into the effete decidua, that is just before a menstrual flow, until just before the next menstrual flow, when it has attained its full development and then becomes the subject of retrograde processes unless conception has taken place.

A question of considerable interest-that is the relation in time between ovulation and menstruation, and consequently the relation of conception to menstruation-is briefly discussed in the papers before us. The authors take opposite views on this point. Dr. Engelmann adheres to the view that the ovum which becomes impregnated was discharged in connection with the last appearing catamenia.

Dr. Engelmann says,

"The evidence we have of the simultaneous occurrence of these processes (menstruation and ovulation) appears to me conclusive, and it seems but natural that the high degree of congestion existing in the organs of generation should cause at the same time in the uterine mucosa tumefaction and hemorrhage, and in the ovary ripening and rupture of the Graafian vesicle.

"I do not propose to say that the escape of the ovum takes place invariably upon one and the same day after hæmorrhage has set in, but the specimens examined by me do go far towards proving that the rupture of the Graafian follicle generally occurs towards the close of the catamenial period.

"I need only refer to cases already cited, two especially characteristic, known to have died shortly before the menstrual period, in which the mucous membrane already displayed the menstrual tumefaction, and no sign of retrograde metamorphosis; in these uteri menstrual hæmorrhage had not yet taken place, but was evidently soon to be expected, and no sign of a recently ruptured follicle was to be found in the ovaries.

"In the ovaries of those whose deaths had taken place during the continuance of the hæmorrhage clotted blood was found in the cavity of the follicle, indicative of recent rupture.

"Cases that had died shortly after the cessation of the catamenia showed the still tumefied somewhat disintegrated membrane and well-marked corpora lutea in the ovary.'

Then he quotes two cases from Dalton's Essay on the 'Corpus Luteum' (already cited), and a case recorded by Dr. Michel "of a woman executed on the second day of the catamenial flow, in whom the follicle was found filled with clotted blood, its rupture having

but very recently taken place, probably hastened by the circumstances of the case.

This evidence does not prove Dr. Engelmann's view. He seems to overlook the fact that menstruation now and then occurs without the occurrence of ovulation; while in the case recorded by Dr. Michel, as well as in the cases examined by Dr. Engelmann, in which death had taken place several days after the cessation of the catamenial flow, and in which well-marked corpora lutea were found, it is is possible that the rupture of the follicle had taken place before the appearance of the catamenia. The two cases related by Dalton are strongly in favour of the view that conception takes place soon after menstruation, but their number is too small to generalize from, especially when we consider the evidence in favour of the opposite view, i. e. that conception takes place before menstruation, and that the ovum impregnated is discharged not in connection with the last appearing, but with the first absent catamenia.

The latter view has been maintained on clinical grounds by Löwenhardt, and Kundral supports it on anatomical grounds in the following words:

"On comparing the changes in the mucous membrane before the menstrual bleeding with those in a uterus in which an ovum in an early stage of development is found, we see, that the difference between the two is not qualitative, but quantitative only. This renders it possible that the growth and swelling of the mucous membrane during menstruation is only a preparation for a possible conception. During and after the bleeding the mucous membrane is in a state of retrogade metamorphosis; to assume in spite of this that a conception exists and that the already degenerated mucous membrane is excited to new growth, is less plausible. It is more natural likewise to assume that the escape of the egg from the follicle takes place before the bleeding, and that in the cases in which the conditions necessary for impregnation are present, bleeding does not take place. We can then recognise in the menstrual changes of the uterine mucous membrane a preparation for the reception of the ovum.'

But this view of the relation of ovulation to menstruation is further supported by the observations of Reichert and Williams. Reichert, in twenty-three preparations bearing on this point, found four in which the Graafian follicle was not ruptured, the decidua menstrualis was more or less developed, and bleeding had not yet taken place. In one of the four the follicle was on the point of bursting. In eighteen hæmorrhage had taken place into the decidua menstrualis, and an egg had been discharged. In one an ovum had escaped but hæmorrhage had not begun. He concludes that the menstrual hæmorrhage probably takes place after rupture of

the Graafian follicle, and that the ovum impregnated is discharged in connection with the first absent catamenia.

Clinical evidence is moreover in favour of this view. The history of the Jews, a prolific race, proves incontestably that conception takes place after the eighth day after the cessation of the catamenia -a fact which is quite incompatible with the theory that conception occurs generally during the first few days after menstruation. To learn the exact value of this clinical evidence there is a factor wanting-namely a nation amongst the members of which coitus is not practised except during the first eight days after the cessation of the catamenia. Were this forthcoming the question of the time of conception or at least of fruitful insemination would at once be settled.

At the same time that we maintain the general rule that conception and ovulation take place before the menstrual flow, still there are recorded examples where conception apparently followed a single coitus taking place soon after the cessation of the menses. Instances of this kind are however rare and must be regarded as exceptions to the rule; yet they show that intercourse taking place immediately after the cessation of a catamenial flow may occasionally prove fruitful.

(To be continued.)

I Williams, after having examined sixteen preparations, concludes that in the great majority of cases, rupture of the Graafian follicle takes placed before the hæmorrhage begins.

Bibliographical Record.

Evolution of the Human Race from Apes.1-This little book comprises two lectures "originally delivered to audiences of ladies and gentlemen in the Botanical Theatre of University College, London;" one in 1874, and the other after the lapse of a year in 1875. It is dedicated to Sir Robert Christison, and has an advertisement or first preface and a longer introduction added on. The lectures were intended to disabuse the minds "of some who have already been led unwittingly to accept the doctrine of evolution"-" a weak-minded class," "who commit the absurdity of trying to reconcile the doctrine with belief in a personal First Cause." In the treatment of the question before him the lecturer determined to "abstain from any theological discussion," but this did not prevent him from writing as follows, in about ten lines afterwards: The belief in Revelation and a personal Creator is, no doubt, the alternative of the admission of evolution, but admission of evolution is not the necessary alternative of unbelief. Excluding all belief in Evolution and a personal Creator, for argument sake, I hold that the doctrine of evolution, unsanctioned, as I believe I show it to be by science, cannot be accepted as the alternative on any consideration, and must therefore be unconditionally and absolutely rejected." This is a very powerful way of saying, that if any one believes in evolution he is an unbeliever, but that all unbelievers need not be evolutionists. Moreover, there is no scientific truth in the doctrine. Therefore an evolutionist is an unscientific infidel! The odium theologicum is particularly obnoxious to those who have had a medical training. It is contrary to the tone of thought and feeling which is inspired by the wide grasp of knowledge essential to the accomplished medical man; and it is offensive to the feelings of those who have lived long enough to remember the time when the term atheist was almost synonymous with medicus in the minds of the ignorant "good."

Mr. Darwin, whatever may be thought of his opinions in biology, must be estimated by what he has written regarding the relation of evolution and theology. He wrote in his Origin of Species,'

1 Evolution of the Human Race from Apes; a Doctrine unsanctioned by Science. By THOMAS WHARTON JONES, F.R.S., &c. 1876, pp. 69.

"There is a grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are

being evolved." This is not the language of an unscientific infidel. The accusation of atheism so freely scattered by Professor W. Jones shows that, although he taught Professor Huxley, and is always spoken of by that eminent thinker as his best teacher, he is still quite ignorant of the inner lives of the men who, he thinks, are disturbing and troubling the spiritual world. It is most indignantly repudiated by all the leaders of science, who, moreover, profess to see the majesty of the Creator in much more sublime and magnificent development than is within the conception of their accusers.

When, therefore, the author of these lectures to ladies and gentlemen talks about the theory of evolution "sapping the foundations of religion" he takes advantage of the ignorance and fanaticism of his audience. The scientific arguments against the theories of Lamarck, Darwin, and the evolutionists, can be properly stated and ought so to be, by men in Professor W. Jones's position, but, singularly enough, they never are. The weak points have been carefully pointed out by the candid Mr. Darwin, and his hypothesis has been accepted by some of the most able men of the day only as "a good working theory." Why does not Professor W. Jones attack these chinks in the armour of his enemies instead of scolding and misstating? If his book is to convert the weak-minded, possibly this may be a consistent but certainly not a judicious course; for the incipient Darwinite will only laugh when he reads "mankind are merely the sons and daughters of apes," and is told that this is the faith of his teachers. In no part of his first lecture does the author attempt to grapple with evolutionist theories scientifically, and he mistakes some of the arguments of his opponents. There is nothing more striking to old and new thinkers than the facts about rudimentary structures and organs. Take a well-known instance or two. The ox has no incisor teeth in the upper jaw, but its calf has; they are large, well developed, supplied with vessels and nerves, but they never come through the gum, are never used, and finally they are absorbed. Again, the Indian Rhinocerides have well developed front teeth, but the African species never has them sufficiently developed to come down and be useful. Man has an appendix vermiformis, which is rather a cause of accident than a fully developed structure. Are these freaks of nature, or is there any scheme in nature which can explain them? The evolutionist says that these rudimentary structures are the relics of what were useful organs in the ancestors of the species, and disbelieves in "freaks." The

115-LVIII.

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