SECEETORY FUNCTIONS IN HUMAN PLACENTA 551 



the most part lie scattered in the partition walls between the 

 vacuoles. Besides, there are, in large numbers, strongly black- 

 stained and almost equally shaped lipoid granules. The cell 

 illustrated by figure 86 is filled with large numbers of vacuoles 

 within the cell body, and there is little protoplasm proper. 

 The plastosomes, being rod-shaped, for the most part lie scattered 

 in the partition walls between the vacuoles. Besides, there are, 

 in various parts of the cell body, a few extremely small lipoid 

 granules, small in numbers. The nucleus is somewhat dark 

 and the nuclear network is indistinct. In this cell and those 

 that are enumerated below there is a somewhat distinct border 

 membrane on the surface. 



In figure 87 both the cell body and nucleus are oval and, 

 though the structure of the cell body is similar in general to the 

 former, the lipoid granules appear in a somewhat larger quan- 

 tity, in some cases existing as the contents of a vacuole. Now, 

 the vacuoles grow larger than in the former in general. The 

 plastosomes are comparatively few. In figures 88 and 89 both 

 the cell body and nucleus are somewhat dark in color. Within 

 there are vacuoles which appear in comparatively small num- 

 bers. The plastosomes in the one are somewhat larger in quan- 

 tity and are distributed all over, while in the other they are com- 

 paratively smaller in number and are confined to a certain 

 section. Both demonstrate more or less lipoid granules of 

 various sizes. In figure 89 some of the lipoid granules contained 

 are Hght-colored, and it is extremely remarkable to find 

 the manner in which they present themselves as contents of 

 vacuoles. Figure 90 illustrates changes of a very high degree, 

 and the cell body is filled up with remarkably large numbers of 

 vacuoles of different sizes, while the plastosomes lie scattered, 

 in somewhat large numbers, in the partition walls of the vacu- 

 oles. The lipoid granules are extremely few in number and are 

 very small in size, while the nucleus is grown in size consid- 

 erably, is clear and has nuclear network and nucleole, both of 

 which are distinct. Figure 91 also shows nearly the same struc- 

 ture as the former, and yet its vacuoles being agglutinated with 

 one another in large numbers, form large and irregular-shaped 



