( 618 ) 



from the foetal side. The compact cellular tissue of the placenta 

 reaches right up to the wall ; between the latter's coating of 

 muscles and the comj)act placenta tissue a very narrow, loosely 

 woven layer of connective tissue runs. In this layer, lying against 

 the muscular coat, we find the diameters of the very wide 

 uterine vessels and also in scxei'al places some uterus-glands. These 

 glands, in the shape of elongated tubes with short ramifications and 

 parallel with the surface of the uterus, are squeezed in between the 

 muscular coat and the placenta. They have a distinct lumen, the 

 epithelium is highly cylimlrical. They are glands that have obviously 

 fully developed, but have not been invaded by villi. On the foetal 

 surface of the placenta moreover, distinct extremities of glands are 

 met with, which, like those just described, have bent round and 

 which run parallel witii the muscular coat, in which a foetal villus 

 is plainly visible. These villi are not h'ing close to the inner surface 

 of the follicle, but are somewhat retracted from it. I did not succeed 

 in observing a distinct e})ithelium on these \illi. 



Some of these uterus glands appear in another form : the cells 

 have very much increased in volume, have s^wollen and are bulging 

 out in several places in the lumen. The protoplasm of these cells is 

 of a well defined I'eticular structure, the cell nuclei are in the basal 

 part of the cells. In the liimen of such glairds we find some inde- 

 pendent cells, or combinations of only a few, some with nuclei, 

 the larger ones without any ; nujreover some conglomerations of 

 deeply stained fine [)articles nuiy be observed here and there. 



The compact mass of the i)lacenta, when magnified, turns out to 

 contain a great nundjor (*fl)loo(lvessel-lumina, adhering close together, 

 each one of them surrouiuled by a distinct endothelium-wall. The 

 ramifications of the foetal \essels, together with some connecti\e tissue, 

 run between these branches of the placental vessels. Forming a separating 

 laver between these two systems of blood-vessels, we find in the 

 greater })art of the [>lacenta ojie single layer of nuclei, situated in 

 a mass of protoplasm, in which, however, no cell limits could be 

 traced. This layer of nuclei, is to be regarded as belonging to a 

 syncytium. In some })laces I counted two, sometimes even nu)re, 

 rows of nuclei between the bi-anches of the placental- and those 

 of the foetal vessels, without my being able to say with certainty 

 which })art t)f it should be taken to be of a syncytial character. 



In the cases of suballantoidal hemorrhage and in the surrounding 

 parts, the nuclei of cells, lining the endothelium-walls of placental 

 vessels and the foetal villi adhering to the blood-mass, are of a 

 much darker hue than those of other parts of the placenta. As a 



