SPIRAL ARTERIES IN THE HUMAN OVARY

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Abstract
Occasionally it happens that a scientific observation is made only to be forgotten and rediscovered after a long period of time. When it is rediscovered, it may be remembered because its significance is appreciated in the light of newly acquired knowledge. The original discovery in 1774 of the spiral arteries in the human endometrium by William Hunter is a case in point. It was not until Daron rediscovered these structures in the uterus of Macacus rhesus in 1936 that their relation to physiological events of the menstrual cycle began to be appreciated. The recent observation that the arterial supply in the rabbit ovary is derived from a helical vessel of diminishing diameter lying along the hilus of the ovary (Reynolds, 1947a) is a second case in point. The recent literature on the subject of ovarian morphology and physiology contains no generally known reference to the existence and possible function of this structure until 1947 when it became the subject of several studies (Reynolds, 1947).