558 GENCHO FUJhMURA 



4. As regards the relation between the secreting functions 

 and the time of pregnancy: 



a. The secreting functions of the syncytium layer may be 

 demonstrated from the beginning of pregnancy to about the 

 end of the fourth month, and yet it is in the second and third 

 months that they are most active. 



b. The secreting functions of the Langhans'cells are almost 

 entirely the same as in the sycytium layer. It is in the Lang- 

 hans' islets alone that they last somewhat longer, it being pos- 

 sible to demonstrate cells which have secretions in them up 

 to the fifth or seventh month, and naturally it can be imagined 

 that the functions continue up to that time. 



c. The secreting functions of the stroma cells of villi begin 

 at about the end of the first month of pregnancy, and keep quite 

 active up to about the seventh month, though from the sec- 

 ond to the sixth month they are at their height. However, 

 it should be noted with care that in the eighth month these 

 cells suddenly diminish remarkably and perish, in consequence 

 of which the functions also will drop promptly at this period. 



d. The decidual cells are entirely different in their appearance 

 falling in the classification into large and small types, as 

 it is well known. That is to say, in the so-called small-type 

 cells the secreting conditions pretty well agree with those in the 

 other cells. This kind of cells appears already quite active on 

 about the seventeenth or eighteenth day after conception, and 

 nearly at the end of the first month of pregnancy its growth 

 and, consequently, its functions reach their climax. There- 

 after, as the large-type decidual cells appear, the small-type 

 cells suddenly diminish in quantity, and in consequence it ap- 

 pears that the functions also drop quickly, though even up to 

 the seventh month of pregnancy it is able to clearly demonstrate 

 the existence of the functions. 



Then, in the so-called large-type decidual cells, for the most 

 part few, are the structures of the cell body by which the exist- 

 ence of secreting functions may be proved; however, in its 

 strongly developed cell membrane a certain substance is formed, 

 probably by a peculiar faculty of its own, and in this manner 



