No. 1.] ORIGIN OF HUMAN MONSTERS. 137 
Its blood-vessels are filled with blood. The decidua is com- 
posed of large sinuses, which are well filled with round cells. 
At this place it may be well to introduce the description 
of a specimen (No. 308) which may prove to be of unusual 
value. In every respect it appeared to be a normal one about 
100 days old, but the amniotic cavity was found filled com- 
pletely with a mass of granular magma which was easily 
brushed aside to expose the embryo. The umbilical cord was 
found wrapped around both of the arms like a pair of shoul- 
der braces, as the figure shows. Sections from the middle of 
placenta, at the point of the attachment of the cord, show that 
there is a muco-purulent mass between its villi, which contain 
many fragmented nuclei. 
It may be that the poisonous condition of the uterus stimu- 
lated the embryo unduly, which in its gyrations got well 
wrapped up in its own cord. This naturally affected its nutri- 
tion, the first sign of which is the presence of granular 
magma. Had it not been aborted it would probably have 
ended like some of the others just described. 
In numerous younger embryos a destruction of the brain 
and cord were noticed, and in a few of them the brain was 
extruding from the head. Yet all these changes were by far 
too severe to end in anencephalic monsters at full term. In 
nearly all of these specimens the changes in the central nervous 
system followed the cessation of the heart beat, and naturally 
such embryos could not continue their development; at best 
they formed moles. At any rate, the changes in these embryos 
show in a most radical way the reactions of the various tissues 
when the circulation is gradually stopped. 
However, development cannot continue long if the infec- 
tion of the chorion is severe, and, therefore, we find but few 
older specimens of pathological embryos in a relatively large 
collection. Usually these appear to be uninteresting, are mis- 
placed or are thrown away. This has not been the case with 
my collection, and in it there are but few older pathological 
embryos. If a variety of merosomatous monsters are due to 
endometritis, we should expect to find them in diminished 
