FCETAL NUTRITION: THE PLACENTA 479 



syncytium, Hofbauer 1 suggests that it may be split up into 

 fatty acids and glycerine before absorption, and then re-synthesised 

 by the foetal placenta (Fig. 129). Thence it is carried by the 

 blood in a soluble form, and is again deposited in droplets Jn 

 the heart, liver, lungs, alimentary tract, and spleen of the foetus. 

 In the later months of pregnancy there is a considerable deposit 

 of fat in the subcutaneous tissue. 



Ss 



FIG. 129. Fat in a villus of the human placenta. (From Hofbauer's 

 Biologic der menschlichen Plazenta, Braumuller.) 



fs., fat globules in deeper layers of syncytium ; fs'., fat in syncytium between 

 Langhans' cells ; /&., fat in mesoblast ; fv.> fat in vacuolated cell. 



Iron. In Man, Peters found evidence of the presence of 

 red blood corpuscles in the trophoblast of the early ovum, and 

 Ulesco-Stroganowa 2 states that they are also present in the 

 syncytium in later stages. This has been disputed by 

 Kworostansky 3 and Hofbauer, who maintain that the corpuscles 

 are first dissolved. More recently Bryce and Teacher found no 

 evidence of the ingestion cf red blood corpuscles by the tropho- 

 blast, while Bonnet 4 has shown that the syncytium gives the eosin- 



1 Hofbauer, Orundzilge einer Biologic der menschlichen Plazenta, Leipzig, 

 1905. 



2 Ulesco-Stroganowa, " Beitrage zur Lehre vom mikroskopischen Bau der 

 Placenta," Monatsschr. f. Geburtsh. u. Qyndk., vol. iii. 



3 Kworostansky, " Ueber Anatomic und Pathologic der Placenta," Arch, 

 f. Oyndk., vol. \xx. 



4 Bonnet, quoted by Hofbauer, loc. cit. 



