38 THE MUCOUS MEMBRANE ELEVATION. 



erythrocytes escape into the adjoining tissue. They loosen 

 the glands and detach the swoolen epithelium which 

 now lies crumbled in the gland duct. In this way a coalescence 

 of glands and capillaries is effected which in the neighborhood 

 of the ovum results in the continuous formation of new inter- 

 communicating blood spaces. If Figs. 7 and 8 ('Plate IV) 

 marked "c," are carefully studied, this process can be better 

 understood than describing the same. Figure 14 (Plate VIII) 

 is still better, in which c and c indicate the adjoining cavities 

 filled with blood. 



The confluent blood spaces are best seen in Fig. 22 (Plate 

 XII) where "c" shows fine septa as the remains of the tissue 

 which at first separated the glands from the capillaries. As the 

 "Eianlage" grows these septa become still thinner and are finally 

 completely dissolved, so that at "c" the blood spaces are in direct 

 communication with their neighbors c l and c 2 , and the latter 

 again with the ovular chamber and its blood spaces. Attention 

 is here called to the fact (which later on will be dealt with in 

 detail), that the trophoblast processes have anchored themselves 

 to the walls of these spaces at c x and c 2 . Thus it is self-evident 

 that in the entire periphery of the ovum these trophablast pro- 

 cesses are surrounded and nourished by connecting blood spaces. 

 These conditions are seen more distinctly in section 94 (Fig. 23, 

 Plate XIII). At "c" a broad blood space runs almost parallel 

 with the glands to the ovular chamber. At c l another one passes 

 from the left inward and breaks up into several blood spaces 

 which communicate with the ovular chamber. It is best seen 

 at c 2 , where a dilated capillary, running to the left and upwards, 

 like through a slit, appears in the cavity. 



A striking similary is obvious, if we compare these pictures 

 with those in my atlas ("Uterus und Kind" plate VI) illustrat- 

 ing injected intervillous spaces in the fifth month of pregnancy, 

 which communicate with vessels of the serotina. 



It seems justifiable to deduce from Figs. 22 and 23, that al- 

 ready in the first days of pregnancy, as described by Peters and 

 myself, the capillaries, through their dilatation, their breaking 

 up into the surrounding tissue and their dissolution into enor- 

 mous blood spaces which communicate with the ovular chamber, 

 form the first rudiments of the intervillous spaces. 



How do these statements compare with those of Peters, Graf 

 von Spec (1. c. pg. 2.) and the various researches made on ani- 

 mals, as compiled by Pfannenstiel 1 ? In this early stage Peters 

 has also observed decidual cells. He could not find a sharp di- 

 vision in the mucosa between a compacta and spongiosa. 



1 Winckel. Handbuch der Geburtshilfe. Bd. I. 1, pg. 194. 



