56 MALL. [Vor. XIX. 
sufficient to cause an embryo to become monstrous. Specimen 
No. 250 of this communication is about as old as No. 12, 
only it is slightly more deformed. It had been removed with 
a curette from a woman who was suffering from uterine 
trouble. The decidua which encircles the ovum is well infil- 
trated with leucocytes, showing that the decidua was inflamed. 
These four specimens are representative. One was detached 
by mechanical means, one was removed by a curette on ac- 
count of endometritis, and two were spontaneous abortions 
of ova which appeared to be normal but contained a stringy 
mass between the villi. This condition is usually well marked 
after the chorion has undergone radical changes and is well 
infiltrated with leucocytes, which often form into smail 
abscesses. 
In the following table I have brought together all of the 
pathological ova in my collection in which there is any history 
of the women from whom they were obtained. Positive as 
well as negative histories are given: 
A glance at this table shows that in eleven cases the main 
trouble preceding the. abortion was a severe hemorrhage ex- 
tending over a number of days. In a second set of twelve 
cases the abortions were from first pregnancies in women 
newly married or who had been married for some time and 
were anxious to have children. In the third group of ten 
cases the women had given birth to a number of children and 
then began to abort, often a second or third time. . The first 
group need not be considered further, but the second group 
consists of women who are naturally sterile and abort when 
they become pregnant. The third group of ten cases is more 
easily understood. The women, perfectly healthy, gave birth 
to one or more children and then conceived but aborted quite 
regularly. In these cases we must admit that the uterus was at 
first perfectly healthy and the ovum was normal, but later, due 
to a variety of infections, the uterus became “inflamed,” and 
thereafter the fertilized ovum could not implant itself, became 
pathological, and later was aborted. According to the data 
given, seven of the mothers were healthy and twelve had uter- 
