_Ovaria, absence of, or diseased condition of._ There is a specimen in Dr. Hunter’s museum, in which one ovarium is wanting; other instances have been recorded in which no vestige of an ovarium could be observed on either side.[334]. The case of this kind published by Mr. _Pears_ in the Philosophical Transactions for 1805, we have before described: to this may be added another instance from the writings of _Morgagni_. Instances of diseased ovaria are very common, and may arise from a variety of causes: the _Fallopian tubes_ may also, in consequence of peritoneal inflammation, become obliterated, and lose the power of conveying the ovum from the ovarium to the uterus; they may besides be originally defective in structure; Dr. _Baillie_ has seen them, without any aperture, or _fimbriated_ extremity, terminate in a cul-de-sac. _Morgagni_ noticed these tubes in some courtesans having been entirely obliterated by the thickening of their parietes; an evident consequence of the habitual orgasm in which they had been kept by too frequent excitement. _Richerand_ on dissecting a subject at La Charité that had been sterile, found the fringed margins, or expanded extremities of the tubes, adhering to the lateral and superior parts of the pelvis, so that it had been impossible for them to perform the motions necessary for fecundation. 2. _Functional Causes._ These are constitutional debility, leucorrhœa, or an excess, or deficiency of the menstrual discharge. Observation has fully established the fact, that women who do not menstruate cannot conceive; this discharge appears to be essentially necessary for the due and healthy state of the uterus, and Dr. _Denman_[335] has also observed that in cases of painful menstruation, a membranous substance is often discharged, and that no woman, in the habit of forming such a membrane has been known to conceive, although, he adds, that as it is not uninterruptedly formed at each period of menstruation, the capability of conceiving may exist at any interval of freedom from its formation. Women who are very corpulent are often barren, for their corpulence either exists as a mark of weakness of the system, or it depends upon a want of activity in the ovaria; thus spayed, or castrated animals generally become fat. A state of exhaustion of the uterine system, occasioned by frequent and promiscuous intercourse with the other sex, is also a very common cause of barrenness in women, and hence few prostitutes conceive. In some cases the uterine system is capable of being acted on by the semen of one individual, but not by that of another, for many instances are on record where persons have lived in wedlock without offspring, and being, after divorce, re-married, have each had families. 3. OF THE LEGITIMACY OF CHILDREN.