490 A. A. W. HUBRECHT. 



layer of connective tissue from the muscuiaris. The glands 

 are concentrated along the opposite surface, even more to the 

 right and to the left than exactly opposite the mesometrium, 

 where the mucosa is again somewhat thinner (fig. 16). In 

 this glandular portion the glands are very closely packed 

 together, and very tortuous ; they open out in that portion of 

 the lumen which in fig. 1 and fig. 16 forms a longitudinal 

 groove opposite the mesometrium. This narrow groove is thus 

 flanked by two cushion-shaped swellings of the mucosa. In 

 these thickenings more considerable blood-vessels are present 

 right and left (fig. 16, bl.) ; smaller blood-vessels are seen 

 between the muscuiaris and mucosa, capillary ducts between 

 the glands. 



It is very remarkable how in the next stage the transverse 

 section of this same region has undergone very considerable 

 changes, independently of any direct or active co-operation of 

 the blastocyst, which is as yet not adherent to the uterine 

 wall. 



If we take the mesometrium as our starting-point, we notice 

 that in fig. 3 there are yet traces close to this mesometrium of 

 the two lateral recesses of the uterine lumen which were 

 visible in fig. 1, below the cushion-shaped swellings, carrying 

 glands and blood-vessels. Instead of the groove-shaped por- 

 tion of the uterus lumen that was found opposite the meso- 

 metrium in fig. 1, and that formed a J. shape with those two 

 lateral recesses, we now find a wide bell-shaped space, between 

 which and the different parts of the uterine wall the relations, 

 more especially with respect to comparative thickness, have 

 become very different. Better than a detailed description, a 

 comparative glance at figs. 3 and 1 will explain this process. 

 A most considerable amount of stretching has taken place, the 

 autimesometrical part of the uterine wall has been reduced to 

 one half and even less of the thickness it had in the preceding 

 stage, and only the cushion-shaped regions yet fairly recog- 

 nisable as such have increased in thickness. The distribution 

 of the glands has assumed a very different aspect ; they are no 

 longer close together, but stretched over a wider area, and 



