328 ARTHUR WILLIAM MEYER 
Minot (’89) not only spoke of large, granular, wandering cells 
in the stroma of the chorion, but also represented them. From 
Minot’s familiarity with the work of Langhans (’77) and of 
Kastschenko (’85), it does not seem unlikely that, among others, 
he had these investigators particularly in mind when he referred 
to the earlier descriptions. 
In the absence of a more discriminating term for these er- 
ratic and ephemeral elements, the original designation of wan- 
dering cell would seem far preferable to the designation lipoid 
interstitial cells, used by certain Italian writers. The former 
is a non-committal term, and, although too inclusive, is for this 
reason no more objectionable than the expression giant-cell. 
Although these cells may not—indeed, probably do not—wan- 
der in the sense of the amoeba or the leucocyte, they neverthe- 
less may change their location decidedly. The qualification, 
intersititial, is objectionable for the very reason for which it 
was chosen—the alleged analogy to the interstitial cells of testis 
and ovary, and since they may contain lipoid substances merely 
because they are degenerate, the adjective lipoid is equally 
objectionable. For reasons to appear later, the designation 
plasma cell, used by certain Italian writers after Hofbauer, 
would not seem to be justified. 
Virchow (’67) stated that isolated cells with clear vesicular 
spaces in their protoplasm are found in the stroma of the villi 
in cases of hydatiform degeneration, and identified them with 
certain other cells, physaliphores—previously described by him. 
He found these bubble-like cells, as he called them, also in the 
thymus of the new-born, in cancer, etc., and, according to Vir- 
chow, they were not merely vacuolated cells. He seems to have 
regarded these cells as identical also with the vacuolated syncy- 
tial masses, for he stated that Miiller described them as occur- 
ring in the chorionic epithelium. Since syncytial elements not 
rarely are found in the stroma, instances of confusion of these 
two cell types can be found in contemporary literature also. 
Langhans (’77), in describing the stroma of the villi, said 
that it contained ‘“‘sharply delimited large cells with many 
granules in the protoplasm. Their form is variable—circular, 
