86 THE PHYSIOLOGY OF REPRODUCTION 



including the epithelium, strorria, and vessel- walls, undergoes pro- 

 nounced hypertrophy, and in the superficial region the congested 

 capillaries break down and their contents become extravasated 

 through the stroma. Fatty degeneration was not observed by Heape, 

 who is disposed to think that the degeneration is of the amyloid or 

 hyaline type. The leucocytes were noticed to be increased decidedly 

 in number, but they were only detected outside of the blood-vessels 

 in the superficial stroma, where the vessel-walls had given way. 

 Diapedesis of corpuscles was nowhere observed. The nuclei of the 

 stroma become larger and more rounded, and exhibit a nuclear 

 network and deeply staining nucleoli. The glands increase in size, 

 becoming longer ; their lumina are wide, and. an active process of 

 "secretion is taking place. Superficially the mucosa appears very 

 markedly flushed. 



V. The Formation of Lacunce. At this stage the extravasated 

 blood corpuscles collect in lacunae which are situated in the loose 

 stroma tissue which lies below the epithelium. These lacunae are 

 clearly identical with the sub-epithelial heematomata of Gebhard. 

 The dense stroma tissue, characteristic of an early stage, still persists 

 in places, but is now of rare occurrence. All the superficial vessels 

 have by this time broken down, but those in the deeper tissue 

 remain intact. Neither leucocytes nor red corpuscles are to be 

 found free in the deeper tissue of the stroma. The condition of the 

 glands is the same as in the preceding stage, but there is evidence 

 of degenerative changes in certain of the stroma nuclei, and also in 

 some of the free leucocytes. 



VI. The Rupture of Lacunce. The superficial stroma and epi- 

 thelium shrivel up at this stage, and, as a consequence, the blood 

 contained in the lacunas is poured into the uterine cavity. The 

 lacunae are very often close to the glands, so that when a lacuna 

 ruptures, a whole gland may be carried away in the blood-stream. 

 The lacunae have no regular inner wall, but in some places the 

 processes of the stroma were observed to combyie together to form 

 a kind of wall which appeared to resist the further encroachment 

 of blood corpuscles in the stroma tissue. Leucocytes are very 

 numerous (usually in the close neighbourhood of the ruptured vessels), 

 some of them being described as mononuclear, and some as having 

 two, three, or four nuclei (products of division). The proportion of 

 leucocytes to red corpuscles was found to be 2 per cent, of the former 

 to 98 per cent, of the latter in unruptured vessels full of blood, while 

 in ruptured vessels, from which blood had escaped, the percentage of 

 leucocytes was noted to be as high as 18*75. Heape does not state, 

 however, that basophil or eosinophil cells occur, such as have been 



