No- 1] ORIGIN OF HUMAN MONSTERS. 205 
with a granular magma into which project numerous slender 
villi arising from the walls of the thickened amnion. 
The activity of the syncytial layer has been most pro- 
nounced. At all points it invades blood clots and the meso- 
dermal tissue of the walls of the chorion and the villi. Occa- 
sionally it almost perforates the chorion to enter the ccelom. 
At one point syncytial cells are within the ccelom, but the 
serial sections do not extend far enough to show the point of 
communication. More marked is a great area of active syn- 
cytium within the amnion, surrounded with a clot of mother’s 
blood. Not only does it spread as a double layer of cells to 
the attachment of the umbilical cord to the chorion, but at 
Fic. 142—Ovum with embryo. Natural size. 
numerous points the nests of syncytium have nearly per- 
forated the walls of the thickened amnion to enter the ccelom. 
The whole picture reminds one much of cancer specimens. 
The presence of the large blood clots within the amnion indi- 
cates that the membrane must have been punctured, probably 
by the activity of the syncytium, long before the abortion took 
place. This, of course, would allow the syncytium to enter 
the ccelom and amnion to there make its further attack, which 
in turn may have caused the amnion to thicken and sprout so 
much. 
The embryo itself has also undergone most marked 
changes. The dimensions of the ovum, the length and degree 
