f 010 ) 



As alreadj' mentioned, the seal has a placenta zonaria, which, com- 

 pared with that of the dog or the cat, is of much looser construction. 

 The uterine side shows many more or less deep grooves, which 

 divide the oi-gau into a number of lobes. The deeper grooves, as a 

 rule, run through the placenta in a longitudinal direction. 



In the seal a green border-zone, such as we iind described 

 in the placenta of several carnivores, does not exist. Yet there is 

 something like it. On detaching the ))lacenta from the wall of the 

 uterus, one could see, even with the naked eye, that both edges 

 of the placenta were freely dotted with small, light-orange coloured 

 particles, some as large as a pin's head; found, on examination, to 

 consist of bilirubine. This pigment was found in enormous quantities 

 and a microscopical investigation showed that the whole edge was 

 saturated with these orange coloured bits. Owing to them, the narrow^ 

 border-seam, instead of being a dark i-ed, like the other parts of 

 the placenta, was of a dirty brown colour. 



As far as the blood-j)igment })enetrates in the placentary tissue 

 — for these corj)uscles may safely be taken to be transformed blood — 

 the whole tissue, when seen undor the microscope, is tinged a light 

 yellow. 



On following uj) this tinged zone under the microscope, we shall 

 see that along the outer edge the amorphous pigment is found in 

 great quantities, bnl no newly ejected blood is found. Only at some 

 distance from the edge the clots of pigment become smaller, but at 

 the same time they are found to be lying in ejected blood that can 

 still be easily recognised as such, until tinally, at the placental end 

 of the brown zone, the blood predominates and here and there a 

 glittering orange-coloured pigment clot is met with. 



From this we may infer that the hemorrhage, during the devel- 

 opment of the foetus, first occurs on the outer limits of the placenta 

 and gradually more towards the centre. 



The bleedings at the edge are not the only ones I noticed in the 

 placenta. 



In dogs, for instance, Strahl describes some so-called green islets 

 in the placenta, spots corresponding to the green edge-zone. These 

 islets do not occur in seals either, at least they are not visible 

 macroscopically. Under the microscope, however, we can see in 

 many places, under the foetal coating of the placenta, some uniformly 

 coloured light yellow spots. On close inspection it is seen that in 

 such places, situated immediately below the foetal surface, hemor- 

 rhage has taken place, and that round this seat of bleeding the 

 placental tissue is of a light yellow^ hue all over. Blood-pigment in 



