No. 1.] ORIGIN OF HUMAN MONSTERS. 49 
mystery, and one finds an endless contradiction of opinions. 
It seems to me that a study of the norm, uterus and chorion is 
required before much headway can be made. In my opinion, 
this is possible only in some great clinic which has attached to 
it a first-class laboratory manned by able investigators. How- 
ever, for the present, we must do the best we can with the 
data at our disposal. First, I shall quote from several com- 
petent recent writers. 
Ahlield states in his treatise on obstetrics? that many abor- 
tions are due to endometritis, which produces inflammatory 
adhesions of the placenta and membranes; hypertrophy of the 
decidua is associated with abnormal forms of the placenta, 
which is followed by an arrest of the development of the em- 
bryo. Furthermore, atrophic endometritis is commonly fol- 
lowed by the formation of an atrophic decidua, which in turn 
must retard the growth of the ovum. In addition to these 
forms there is a condition known as hemorrhagic endome- 
tritis, due to a variety of infections. The hemorrhages which 
take place in the chorion or placenta are often accompanied 
with bacteria or may be due to nephritis, which may be fol- 
lowed by decidual infarctions and death of the embryo. In 
these cases the effused masses of blood are in successive layers 
of old and new clots, forming a tumor known as decidua tube- 
rosa. In case the bleeding continues after the death of the 
embryo the chorion may be converted into a fleshy mole. 
Ahlfeld further states that repeated abortions are due to 
endometritis or to syphilis, but the second abortion need not 
by any means be due to the same cause as the first. If due to 
syphilis successive abortions occur later and later in pregnancy. 
Syphilis, and possibly gonorrhoea, causes abnormal develop- 
ment of the decidua; in chronic endometritis the decidua 
undergoes diffuse hypertrophy. According to Virchow, syphilis 
causes knotty development of the decidua in case the mother 
is infected; in case the father is infected the primary change 
is found in the chorion. 
*Ahlfeld, Geburtshilfe, 1903. 
