ITS FORMATION AND STRUCTURE. 91 



the results obtained by them is to confirm the opinion of Dr. Sharpey and 

 of Prof. E.H.Weber, stated at page 1574 of Miiller's Physiology, that this 

 membrane is not a structure of new formation, but is produced simply by an 

 increased development of the parts composing the mucous membrane of the 

 uterus, and of an increased quantity of matter secreted by the follicles of 

 this membrane. In further support of this opinion, E. H. Weber* has con- 

 tributed some additional particulars relating to the mode of formation of 

 the decidua, and the ultimate destination of its several parts. They do not, 

 however, throw much further light on the subject than was already afforded 

 by the researches of Dr. Sharpey. Many of the observations of the 

 latter physiologist, Weber amply confirms. He corroborates, for example, 

 all that was stated by Dr. Sharpey concerning the existence and pecu- 

 liarities of the two sets of glands found in the mucous membrane of the 

 bitch's uterus, and of the changes which ensue in these glands after con- 

 ception. The only point in which, on this subject, Weber's account 

 differs from that of Dr. Sharpey, is in describing the vascular processes of 

 the chorion as sending off their branches within the glands of the mucous 

 membrane of the uterus, and carrying the lining membrane of the glands 

 with them in folds which they form around the maternal vessels,. whereas 

 Dr. Sharpey states that the foetal processes send off their branches outside 

 the uterine glands, and describes the expanded summits of these processes 

 which close the mouths of the glands, as being " smooth and even, and 

 covered with a prolongation of the same epithelium which lines the cells " 

 or dilated parts of the glands. Dr. Sharpey also describes these glands 

 as remaining during pregnancy, and secreting a fluid which is probably 

 absorbed by the foetal vessels as nutriment for the foetus; but, according to 

 Weber's account, these glands, or, at least, the dilated or cell-like portions 

 of them, entirely disappears as the foetal blood-vessels come into relation 

 with those of the mother. Professor Weber confirms Dr. Sharpey's 

 description of the simple follicles observed on the mucous membrane of 

 the human uterus immediately after impregnation. He could never 

 observe that these follicles formed dilated pouches previous to opening 

 upon the surface of the uterus, as in the bitch, or that at their opposite 

 extremity they branched or even divided into two trunks ; but he noticed 

 that at their termination in the substance of the uterus, they frequently 

 formed two or three closed sacculi. (See fig. 16, p. 92.) He states that he 

 could never perceive the villi of the chorion to enter the orifices of these 

 glands, although Bischofff (whose account of the uterine glands and of 

 the membrana decidua, in other respects corresponds closely with the de- 

 scriptions given by Dr. Sharpey and Professor Weber) considers it probable 

 that they do. The existence of these simple glands in the mucous mem- 



* Zusatze zur Lehre vom Baue und den Verrichtungen der Geschlechtsorgane. Leipzig, 

 1846. 



t MUller's Archiv. 184G, p. 112. 



