CLASSIFICATION. 



47 



of specimens, a simple, serviceable, even if rough classification is extremely useful. 

 Moreover, under present circumstances, the first examination must be a gross and 

 also a rather superficial one, unless technical assistance adequate to make a final 

 diagnosis within a few days of the receipt of the specimen is available. This not 

 having been the case, it has been found that a certain amount of shifting becomes 

 inevitable unless the groups are to become mixed. The shifting necessitated by 

 further examination is indicated in table 4. However, as the histories become 



TABLE 4. Showing the shifting within the groups necessitated by microscopic examination. 



more complete, and the data which they contain also more reliable, and especially 

 as our knowledge of chorionic and placental pathology becomes fuller, an entire 

 reclassification may become advisable, if not inevitable. This, however, should 

 not be cause for regret, for it is in the line of progress. Indeed, it was not un- 

 anticipated, and the revision indicated in table 4 was made at the request of Mall. 

 It would seem, moreover, that a modification in classification is indicated also by 

 the main thesis of Mall, that faulty implantation is the cause of abnormalities. 

 Yet under the present classification, as Mall himself explained, cyemata with 

 marked abnormalities frequently are classed as normal. Moreover, normal speci- 

 mens are included among the pathologic division, which, strangely enough, con- 

 tains no group of abnormals. This difficulty can be remedied easily, but how soon 

 other difficulties indicated above can be overcome or be eliminated will depend 



