426 MINOT. [Vo. II. 
His pupil, Raissa Nitabuch, has since published a dissertation, 
117, confirming this opinion, according to which the vessel 
shown in Cut 35, Ve, is not venous, but arterial. Another pos- 
sibility has occurred to me, viz.: that it is a gland duct; in 
fact, it resembles very closely the undoubted gland ducts of the 
one month’s decidua: there is no reason apparent why the gland 
ducts, which pass nearly vertically through the compact layer, 
should be obliterated; on the contrary, one might expect to 
find them widened by the stretching of the uterus; as there is 
Cut 36. — Uterus of seven months, vertical section of the decidua serotina from 
near the margin of the placenta. mc, muscularis; D!, D!’, decidua serotina; D’, 
cavernous or spongy layer; D!’, compact layer; V7, scattered chorionic villi. The 
intervillous spaces were filled with blood, which ts not represented in the figure, 
X 50 diams. 
blood in the intervillous spaces, it could easily make its way 
into the distended glands, and its presence there would not 
prove the glands to be blood-vessels. While, therefore, I ac- 
cept Waldeyer’s researches, 149, as well as those of Langhans 
and Nitabuch, 117, as verifying Farre’s neglected account, 
172, 722, of the placental circulation, I venture to express a 
note of caution as to the danger of mistaking glandular for vas- 
cular openings. 
