348 MINOT. (Vou. IL. 
cental area, the evidences of resorption are greater, and over the 
area itself a large part of the upper glandular zone has disap- 
peared altogether. Similar relations are found in the uterus of 
nine days, from which the drawings have been taken. For the 
sake of greater clearness, and to avoid repetition, we pass at 
once to the next stage. The fact that I have found the uterus 
at eight days so much nearer in its stage of development to that 
of nine than to that of seven days, may be attributed to acci- 
dental variations. 
§ 4. Uterus at nine days and three hours. — Fig. 2, PI. 
XXVI., represents a transverse section through a swelling. The 
attenuation of the walls everywhere, except in the placenta, is 
very marked, and affects both the outer and inner muscular 
layers, 4m, cm, and the mucosa, muc. In the placental region, 
P/, on the contrary, the walls are thickened ; the placenta itself 
is formed chiefly by the hypertrophy of the connective tissue of 
the two longitudinal folds nearest the mesentery, mes: the 
superficial glandular layer, g/, owing to its deeper staining, is 
readily distinguished even by the naked eye; each lobe of the 
placenta is imperfectly subdivided into two lobules; the em- 
bryo, in the specimen figured, appears in transverse section over 
the right-hand lobe, directly above the furrow separating its lob- 
ules; the actual disposition is shown in Cut 1; in Fig. 2 the 
embryonic structures are purposely omitted on account of the 
small scale; to the consideration of the foetal membranes the 
next section (§ 5) is devoted. 
The connective tissue of the placenta is already far advanced 
in its metamorphosis, which progresses as described by Masque- 
lin and Swaen. It consists of a rich cellular network, Fig. 3, 
conn, of which the cell bodies are much larger than in previous 
stages ; these bodies are for the most part elongated, with very 
irregular surfaces, and are, therefore, perhaps best characterized 
as roughly spindle-shaped ; their long axes are more or less par- 
allel with the blood-vessels ; the nuclei are round, oval, or ellip- 
tical, granular, but with a clearer cortical layer, as is usually 
the case in young connective tissue cells: compare Rollett’s 
Figs. 4 and 5 in Stricker’s Handbuch der Lehre von den Gewe- 
ben, 1., pp. 63 and 65. The processes of the cells are numerous 
and very fine, forming a meshwork, between the cells, of such 
delicacy that it can be followed out only with high powers 
