Ovarian cysts or tumors cannot be considered in a work for home treatment, but a desire must be awakened in the minds of thoughtful readers, to learn the origin of these growths, and it seems to me quite appropriate at this juncture of the subject, to state that Professor Waldeyer, of Berlin, has discovered that ovarian tumors are developed from the remnants of the little tubules from which the Graafian follicles originate, so that the cause or source of these tumors is already laid before the patient is born; hence cannot be attributed to any fault on the part of the afflicted person. From the earliest period of intra-uterine development up to the age of puberty, the growth of the ovaries is entirely passive, but after that a continuous change takes place in the substance of the ovaries; the contents of the ovaries become active from the period of puberty, from which dates the commencing aptitude for procreation, until the menopause, or final cessation of the menses, which, in popular language, is termed “change of life,” when the aptitude for conception ceases with the proliferation of the ova. The period of fruitfulness is characterized by the persistence of the menses, and this terminates, on the average, in the forty-fifth year; during all of this time the little ova, or eggs, continually ripen, and at their maturity the ovisacs, or Graafian vesicles, rupture from an increased secretion into their cavities. This ripening of an egg and rupture of a follicle corresponds with the monthly flow. The human ovum is very small; the largest does not measure above 1-120th of an inch in diameter, and very often it measures only half that size. The situation of the ovary is not fixed in the pelvic cavity with any absolute degree of certainty, but it enjoys a degree of mobility that is even greater than that of the womb itself, to which it is attached by means of the ovarian ligament. Its usual place is about an inch from the uterus and a little backwards. It is partly surrounded by folds of peritoneum, and partly by the tissue that pads out the interspaces between the pelvic organs. If we remember the physiological fact, that at every monthly discharge of blood from the uterus, which is called menstruation, an ovum or egg ripens and an ovisac bursts, we cannot fail to appreciate the importance of the intimate relations that these functions must have, to the health of the individual and the perpetuation of the species. This process of ovulation has the peculiarity of the first stages of an inflammatory action, because the ovaries become congested whenever an ovisac ruptures. Through the nervous sympathy existing between the ovaries and uterus, this too becomes congested, so that the network of uterine vessels becomes so engorged that the capillary blood vessels of the mucous membrane of the womb rupture, and the hemorrhage that is the result constitutes the menstrual flow.