390 Maximilian Herzog. 



parts. However, the numerous and large syncytial buds present 

 in somewhat older placentae are not seen. The protoplasmic strip 

 is deeply eosin-stained, but it shows a tinge as if it had also taken 

 up some of the nuclear stain (hematoxylin). The very margin, 

 however, is purely eosin-stained. The protoplasm is finely vacuo- 

 lated. The distinctly eosin-stained outer strip consists of a cuticle 

 and cilia. The cuticle can only be distinguished here and there in 

 favorable places, but the cilia are almost everywhere easily seen. 

 (Fig. 30.) The syncytium in our specimen fully conforms to the 

 description given by Bonnet as found in an early human ovum, 

 fixed like ours in Zenker's solution. This author says: ''Towards 

 the periphery the plasma of the syncytium is condensed into a 

 stratum frequently staining very intensely with eosin, rubiii or 

 Heidenhain's iron hematoxylin. This outer strip, variable in thick- 

 ness and distinctness, in fact appears like a cuticle. Its free surface 

 in all sufficiently thin sections (3 to 5 micra) shows a very dis- 

 tinct and beautiful lining with cilia ("Biirstenbesatz"). This 

 lining has also been described by Marchand^^ and Lenhossek. Ac- 

 cording to the latter, these cilia or rods are not motile (they were 

 studied by Lenhossek in a fresh preparation), and in specimens 

 stained with iron hematoxylin they exhibit basal granules in the 

 cuticle." 



Bonnet has not been able to see such basal granules, nor are they 

 shown in our specimen, which, however, has not been stained with 

 iron hematoxylin. The cilia in our sections present themselves as 

 stiff, fairly slender, moderately high rods, which form very regu- 

 larly parallel rows. They are deeply eosin-stained and of the same 

 color as the cuticle. As stated, they can be seen without the least 

 difficulty almost everywhere in the sections where syncytium is 

 found. These rods are unlike the cilia of the glandular epithelium, 

 which can still be well seen in the innermost portion of the decidua 

 spongiosa towards the muscularis. 



Since cells provided with a cuticle and cilia or rods generally have 



"Marchand: Beobachtiingen an jiingen mensclilichen Eieru. Aaat. Hefte 

 1903, Vol. 21, p. 217. 



