42 Mr. E. A. Mincliin. Note on the Larva and the 



the segmenting germinal area, by the parablast of mesoblastic 

 ova.* 



I was under the impression when these observations were made, 

 that fat had never been found, in this form, in the placenta before. 

 I find that I am to some extent anticipated by a paper in the 

 * Archiv fiir Gynaekologie,' February, 1896. t One of the authors 

 (Aschoff) wished to examine a malignant uterine growth, which he 

 believed to be of the nature of Deciduoma malignum. Before doing 

 so, he examined several specimens of young human ova, in Older, as 

 he says, to learn something of the struciure of growing chorionic 

 villi. Some of the specimens he hardened in Memming's solution, 

 and in all of these he found fat in the plasmodial layer of the villi. 

 Aschoffs description of the fat deposit agrees very closely with that 

 already given of my own specimen. " An den Flemmingschen 

 Praparaten ist das Syncytium dadurch ausgezeichnet, dass es in 

 seiner Bandzone eine dichte Anhaufung feinster Fetttrb'pfchen tragt. 

 Dieselbe sind bald sehr fein, bald grobkornig, aber in den betreffenden 



Abschnitten des Syncytiums stets von gleicher Grosse Die 



Fetttropfcben iiberall sich finden, wo Chorionepithelzellen, in 

 directesten Stoffwechselaustausch mit den Intervillosenraumen 

 treten" (p. 531). 



Aschoff scarcely appreciates the physiological importance of the 

 observation, but there can be no doubt that his observations and my 

 own are mutually confirmatory. 



*' Note on the Larva and the Postlarval Development of 

 Leucosolenia vanabilis, H. sp., with Remarks on the Develop- 

 ment of other AsconidsB." By E. A. MINCHIN, M.A., Fellow 

 of Merton College, Oxford. Communicated by Professor 

 E. RAY LANKESTER, F.R.8. Received April 25, Read 

 May 21, 1896. 



Introductory Remarks. 



Through the kind hospitality of Professor de Lacaze-Duthiers, I 

 was able to spend the spring and summer of last year at the marine 

 laboratories of Banyuls-sur-Mer and Roscoff, where I was chiefly 

 engaged in studying the embryology of the Asqons. In Banyuls I 

 obtained the larvae of Leucosolenia cerebrum, H. sp., in June, and of 

 L. reticulum, O.S. sp., in July. In Roscoff I found the larvae of L. 

 varialilis, H. sp., all through August and the early part of September, 



* " Formation of the Germinal Layers in Teleostei," ' Eoy. Soc. Edin. Trans./ 

 1896. 



f " Ueber bosartige Tumoren der Chorionzotten," Apfelstedt und Aschoff. 



