CYCLIC CHANGES IN UTERUS AND OVARIES. 5 



and usually high; the gland fundi do not show as high an epi- 

 thelium. There are mitoses present in the surface epithelium 

 and in the upper and medium parts of the glands; but the mitoses 

 may reach also further into the lower part of the glands. The 

 gland fundi are not large nor separated from each other by much 

 connective tissue. The connective tissue of the mucosa contains 

 many nuclei ; the fibrils are not pronounced and the tissue has a 

 succulent, somewhat myxoid appearance; the nuclei are vesicular. 

 Between the gland fundi the connective tissue is more fibrillar. 

 No mitoses are as yet visible in the connective tissue of the 

 mucosa; some leucocytes are still to be found there. We see, 

 therefore, that the large masses of leucocytes have mostly dis- 

 appeared as early as two days after copulation, and that the 

 damage done to the epithelial structure has been repaired. 



In the first half of the fourth day after copulation the epithelial 

 structures are on the whole unchanged ; the surface and gland duct 

 epithelium is cylindrical, but at the surface there may be some 

 cuboidal cells; the gland fundi are still composed of smaller cells, 

 but in the second half of the day, the gland fundi also become 

 active and show frequent mitoses. In the surface epithelium 

 there are at this period either none at all, or only exceptional 

 mitoses. At this period begins also the increase in the number 

 of connective tissue cells in the mucosa. Three days, eight 

 hours after copulation, the connective tissue of the mucosa has a 

 myxoid character; the nuclei of the connective tissue cells are 

 still small, but a little larger than at former periods; only ex- 

 ceptionally a mitosis is visible in the connective tissue of the 

 mucosa. Many blood vessels are present and the tissue appears 

 hyperemic, but no mitoses are seen in the vessels. The con- 

 nective tissue between the fundi is denser. Three days and 

 twelve hours after copulation, the mucosa is wider; there are 

 round or oval vesicular nuclei present in the connective tissue 

 cells; their cytoplasm is permeated with vacuoles; a certain though 

 not yet large number of mitoses is seen in the connective tissue 

 cells and these mitoses are independent of mitoses in endothelial 

 cells of blood vessels which also occur. Thus the connective 

 tissue cells become gradually transformed into predecidual cells. 

 The connective tissue assumes a similar structure as regenerating 



