The ovaria are susceptible of very considerable enlargement by diseases, so as to occasion the appearance of pregnancy, the most common of which is dropsy; in some cases the whole substance is converted into a capsule containing fluid, so large as to occupy nearly the whole cavity of the abdomen. There is one phenomenon, connected with the morbid anatomy of these organs, that deserves particular notice in this work, as being a subject in some degree connected with judicial enquiry—the change of these parts into a fatty substance containing hair and teeth! these appearances have been often regarded as imperfect ova, in consequence of impregnation, but it should be generally known that they take place without any intercourse between the sexes, and appear to depend upon causes very remote from those to which we allude.[40] In our examination of the ovaria, it is essential to remark whether any _corpus luteum_ be present; and upon this subject and the value of its indications, it will be necessary to offer a few remarks. The _corpora lutea_ are oblong glandular bodies, found in the ovaria of pregnant animals; they have been regarded as the _calyces_, from which the impregnated ovum has dropped;[41] they are largest and most conspicuous in the early state of pregnancy, and remain for some time after delivery, when they gradually fade and wither until they disappear. The phenomenon has been eagerly seized by the juridical physician as furnishing an indication of pregnancy; and, to a certain degree, the test may be admitted; but cases have occurred in which a _corpus luteum_ has been found, where impregnation could not have occurred;[42] it is probable that upon certain occasions extreme salacity may disengage an ovum, and thus produce the _corpus luteum_, although the former without sexual intercourse can never be developed in the uterus; but this is an exception to the general law of Nature, and the _corpus luteum_ may still be regarded as a presumptive proof of pregnancy. _Mr. Stanley_, in a very excellent memoir, published in the _Medical Transactions of the College_, _vol._ vi, observes that “the _corpora lutea_ in the ovaries of virgins may, in general, be distinguished from those which are the consequence of impregnation, by their smaller size.” After all that has been said, our opinion in a case of supposed impregnation must, in the earlier stages, be formed from a review of all the circumstances appertaining to the condition of the uterus, ovaria, and fallopian tubes; and should these present such appearances as they usually assume in pregnancy, and the condition of the mammæ should at the same time agree with them, the proof is strongly presumptive; although it must fall short of the demonstration which the actual inspection of the _ovum in utero_ can alone afford.