A variety of pessaries have been invented for the relief of ovarian prolapse. They are of but little, if any, use. In many cases the pressure of the pessary upon the ovary renders its employment impossible. No pessary will cure a simple prolapse of the ovary. The cases in which the pessary does good are those in which there is a primary uterine displacement. INFLAMMATION OF THE OVARY; OÖPHORITIS OR OVARITIS. =Acute Oöphoritis.=--In acute oöphoritis the inflammation may begin on the surface of the ovary (_perioöphoritis_) and extend inward, or it may begin in the ovary itself. When the disease is caused by extension of the inflammation from the tubes, it usually begins as a perioöphoritis. Both the follicular and interstitial portions of the ovary may be affected. When the inflammation is confined chiefly to the ovarian follicles, it is said to be _parenchymatous_; when the connective tissue is chiefly affected, it is called _interstitial oöphoritis_. In acute inflammations all portions of the ovary are usually involved at one time. The changes are those that characterize inflammation of other glandular structures. The whole organ becomes swollen, hyperemic, and edematous. The liquor folliculi becomes turbid; the membrana granulosa becomes softened and disintegrated. The surface of the ovary may be covered with an inflammatory exudate. In severe septic cases the whole ovary may become destroyed, or one or more ovarian abscesses may be formed. In less severe cases the inflammation subsides before suppuration takes place, or goes on to chronic oöphoritis. The usual _cause_ of acute oöphoritis is extension of inflammation from the Fallopian tube. Acute oöphoritis may also occur as the result of septic infection carried by the lymphatics of the uterus. The disease is not uncommon in puerperal sepsis. Here it often forms but a minor part of a general fatal infection. Gonorrhea may cause oöphoritis in a similar way. Acute suppression of menstruation is said to result in inflammation of the ovaries. Acute rheumatism and the eruptive fevers may produce oöphoritis. The disease of the ovaries is often overlooked during the acute attack, while the attention of the physician is engaged by the general affection. These diseases, occurring in childhood, are the probable causes of some of the damaged and chronically inflamed ovaries with which women suffer in later life. To these diseases also are to be attributed many cases of arrested development of the sexual apparatus, the phenomena of which appear only after menstruation has begun. The ovarian disease in these cases may be very insidious. Decided microscopic changes have been found in the ovarian follicles in scarlet fever, though to the naked eye the gland was unchanged. The _symptoms_ of acute oöphoritis are very often masked by those of accompanying affections, such as salpingitis and puerperal sepsis. There may be a chill, followed by fever, nausea, and vomiting.