544 GENCHO FUJIMURA 



above have, as was mentioned in my own observations, a 

 definite relation to the time of pregnancy, and accordingly 

 the rise and fall of the functions of secretion of these cells also 

 act upon it; that is to say that, in the first month and the first 

 half of the second month of pregnancy, the functions are at the 

 height of their activity, and they subside considerably from the 

 beginning of the third month, the subsidence being by far the 

 greater in the fourth month, and in the fifth month they seem 

 to come to a standstill, it being no longer possible to demon- 

 strate the function of secretion in the months that follow, viz., 

 in the second half of pregnancy. In the next place, the afore- 

 mentioned functions of the glandular cells, as compared with 

 the decidua vera, appear more speedily and in a still higher 

 degree in the decidua serotina, and fail accordingly earlier than 

 in the former, and everybody easily recognizes that the secre- 

 tions of the glandular cell and its broken-up matter both accu- 

 mulate in the glandular lumen for a certain period, though 

 some consideration should be given the question as to how 

 they are removed or absorbed. It is said that, according to 

 what has been written on this subject, the placental formation 

 commences from the second month and is perfected in the 

 fourth month and that the decidua reflexa and decidua vera are 

 agglutinated in the fifth month. Should this opinion be true, 

 it would follow that the secretions of the uterus, looked at 

 from the periodic relations of secretion, are for the most part 

 drained into the uterine cavity, and take a part in the forma- 

 tion of the so-called uterine milk. However, according to my own 

 experience, it appears that the placental formation and the 

 adhesion of the decidua reflexa take part in an earlier part of 

 pregnancy. Therefore, I am inclined to believe that a part of the 

 secretions and detritus of the uterine glands, at least in a little 

 advanced period of pregnancy, are naturally absorbed by the 

 mother on account of the closure of the ducts. 



SUMMARY 



It is to be observed that the syncytium layer, Langhans' cells, 

 stroma cells of villi, decidual cells, and uterine glandular cells, 

 all of which constitute the chief tissue elements of the placenta 



