416 MINOT. [VoL. Il. 
small, oval, or elongated, darkly stained nuclei, with a very small 
granular protoplasmatic body each ; there is certainly no noticea- 
ble enlargement of the cells, but only a remarkable multiplica- 
tion. The point is important; I see nothing to suggest the 
presence of decidual cells, nothing even like definite enlarge- 
ment of any of the cells. The image of the tissue is compara- 
ble to that of the connective tissue of the rabbit’s placenta at 
six days, except that there the cells are widely separated, here 
closely crowded, but in each case the cells are small, with little 
protoplasm, and connected by their processes. In another 
specimen in my possession of a normal uterus at the close of 
menstruation, the condition of the mucous membrane agrees 
with that of the specimen we have considered, except, of course, 
that the disintegrated superficial layer is lost, and that the super- 
ficial layers stain poorly. In this second specimen, also, the 
interglandular cells are small and very crowded; there are few 
leucocytes and no decidual cells. The two specimens further 
agree in having the glands distended and contorted; each gland 
is surrounded by a distinct basement membrane or layer of con- 
nective tissue cells closely investing the epithelium, as has been 
observed by Leopold, 36. In my article on the decidua in the 
Reference Handbook, I1., p. 390, is a summary of the changes 
occurring during menstruation, and stress is there laid upon two 
points emphasized by previous writers ; namely, the increase in 
the number of leucocytes and the presence of decidual cells. 
Since my own observations have failed to confirm these state- 
ments, I can no longer accept them. The proliferated connec- 
tive tissue cells are those, probably, which become decidual cells 
when the decidua menstrualis is changed into the decidua gravt- 
ditatis — compare the account of the one month’s uterus in the 
next section. 
§ 17. Uterus one month pregnant.— The specimen to be 
described came from a woman who committed suicide by vio- 
lence, not by poison, and I was informed that she was known to 
be about one month pregnant. Further information was not 
- obtained, and I was requested not to seek it. The specimen 
was received in very fresh condition, but it had been opened, 
the reflexa was torn and pretty much gone; the embryo had 
been removed, and I was therefore unable to verify the age, or 
investigate the attachment of the villi of the chorion to the 
