NOTES ON STRUCTURE, ETC., OF ELEPHANT’S PLACENTA. 17 
appearance of being those of the earlier stages in develop- 
ment. 
Except for the important absence of the walls of the 
uterus, we believe we have in this specimen of Owen’s all the 
stages of formation of the foetal villi and their connection 
with the maternal blood supply. 
Fig. 15 is a figure of the cut surface across the zonary 
belt of Owen’s specimen. On the foetal surface the sub- 
circular bodies are to be seen on the zonary belt as well as 
on the other parts of the chorion (swb-circ.). On the maternal 
side there are several points of interest. On each side of the 
thicker belt there are many branched villi, and beyond these 
many very small villi which are not branched. These latter 
were not discovered until an examination had been made by 
means of sections (fig. 15). They are, however, just visible 
by help of a pocket lens, and by a careful search over the 
whole chorion we have been able to recognise them for 
a distance of some five or six inches on each side of the 
zonary belt, and also for some three inches around the two 
villous patches near the poles. 
Over the remainder we believe there are no villi, though we 
have not been able to examine all parts by sections. This, 
then, reduces the quite smooth part of the chorion in the 
half-term placenta to a couple of bands some five or six 
inches in width, between the poles and the zonary placental 
belt. 
Turning to the maternal surface of the zonary placental 
belt, it will be seen that on either side there is an area 
completely devoid of villi and quite smooth. 
These smooth bands are covered with the same “ brownish 
granular matter”? which is found extending outwards over 
the branched villi at the sides of the zonary belt alluded to 
above, as described by Chapman, who suspected it to be of 
maternal origin. Whether it is so we will discuss later. 
Lastly, the more median portion of the maternal surface is 
on the whole rough, though here and there smooth patches 
can be made out by a surface examination of the whole 
VoL, 49, PART 1,—NEW SERIES, 2 
