106 STUDIES ON PATHOLOGIC OVA. 



proliferation. The tendency to decidual separation, with the onset of hemorrhage, 

 would seem to make the conditions of the uterus much less favorable in this 

 regard. Since most of the tubal specimens were very young, changes suggestive 

 of lues were seen but once. 



A comparison of the summaries of the findings in uterine and tubal abortions 

 shows that a marked parallelism exists between them. The incidence of infiltra- 

 tion, of hydatiform degeneration, and of the presence of infiltration in cases of the 

 latter, is remarkably similar. In 315 uterine specimens the incidence of infiltra- 

 tion of the decidua was 79.9 per cent, while infiltration of the tube wall was 

 present in 78.8 per cent of the tubal specimens. In spite of the remarkable 

 agreement between them, these percentages tell only a part of the truth, for they 

 do not express the differences in intensity of infiltration or the presence of abscess 

 formation. My impression is very definitely to the effect that, as a whole, the 

 uterine infiltrations were far more severe than those of the tube. Many of the 

 latter were so slight that one possibly might regard them as due to the pregnancy 

 itself; not that normal pregnancy is necessarily accompanied by infiltration, but 

 this might especially be the case if pregnancy occurred in abnormal surroundings, 

 as it does in the tube. 



Hydatiform degeneration was present in 31.2 per cent of the uterine and in 

 51.6 per cent of the tubal specimens. The higher incidence of hydatiform degen- 

 eration in the tubes may be due to the fact that three-fourths of all the tubal speci- 

 mens fall into the first two groups, while only 57.1 per cent of the uterine do so. 

 It is, of course, in the early stages of development that hydatiform degeneration is 

 particularly frequent. Moreover, in comparing the incidence of hydatiform de- 

 generation in the first four groups of the tubal and uterine specimens, we find 

 that they are practically identical. That for the tubal is 41.4 per cent and that 

 for the uterine specimens actually somewhat higher, or 42.1 per cent. Further- 

 more, the incidence of infiltration in all cases of hydatiform degeneration in the 

 tubal specimens is 78.8 per cent and in the uterine 79.9 per cent. This shows not 

 only that a parallelism between the two groups exists in regard to these changes, but 

 that there is also a parallelism between the incidence of hydatiform degeneration 

 and infiltration in the specimens in each group. It will be seen that in the first 

 four groups the incidence of infiltration of the decidua in the uterine specimens is 

 just about as much higher than infiltration of the tube in the tubal specimens as 

 the incidence of hydatiform degeneration in the uterine specimens is higher than 

 that in the tubal. This is not what one would expect a priori, but it is interest- 

 ing that the greater incidence of hydatiform degeneration in the first four groups 

 of the uterine specimens also is in harmony with the slightly greater incidence of 

 the presence of infiltration in these specimens. 



A similar parallelism is found to exist also between the incidence of infiltration 

 in all the tubes, portions of which were examined, and its incidence in the decidua. 

 It was 88.5 per cent in the former and 81.5 per cent in the latter. Hence, infiltra- 

 tion was found somewhat more commonly present in the tubes than in the decidua. 

 This fact might seem to stand in contradiction to the relationship between infiltra- 



