168 



One or two other details may be noticed. In his second paper 

 Maximow has corrected the erroneous opinion which he had pre- 

 viously expressed that the cells of the perivascular sheaths were 

 steil ate, and the glycogen inter-, not intra-cellular. I may perhaps 

 point out that his figures of these cells bear a very close resem- 

 blance to the maternal glycogen cells of the mouse. He describes 

 a fatty degeneration of the glycogenic cells, rnentions fat and 

 other ('Altmannsche') granules in the trophoblast, and notices 

 the presence of ingested maternal blood corpuscles in the most 

 superficial inultinucleate glycogenic cells. 



It will be clear from this brief review that on two very im- 

 portant poiuts there is not a complete unanimity among the 

 investigators who have dealt with the Rabbit; namely, on the 

 disappearance of the maternal epithelium, and the formation of 

 the syncytium. 



With regard to the first point the few preparations which I 

 have seen (some slides belonging to the late Dr. Doorman which 

 Professor Hubrecht was good enough to place at my disposal) 

 do not permit me to form a positive opinion, although I think 

 that there can be no doubt that the epithelium shows the first 

 signs of degeneration, becoming lower and flatter where the tro- 

 phoblast is in contact with it. I can only point out that Maxi- 

 mow's figures are much more convincing than Strahl's, and that 

 the latter has very clearly been influenced by the views he holds 

 of this process in other forms, notably in the Carnivora. 



With regard to the second point I must again say that Maxi- 

 mow's figures are better than those of Marchand, and that his 

 description is much more intelligible. 



Before taking leave of the Rabbit I should like to suggest, as 

 a possible view, that the multinucleate glycogenic cells lying next 

 the trophoblast are really of embryonic origiu. This view has been 

 suggested to me by the preparatious I have seen, and by Maximow's 

 statement that 'die Kerne der Glykogenzellen erhalten hingegen 

 'bei der Hypertrophie derselben allmahlich eine immer bedeutender 

 'werdende Aehnlichkeit mit den embryonalen Kernen' (32 p. 727). 



