156 APPENDAGES OF THE FOETUS. 



chorion must be confounded or blended with it in order to form the 

 placenta, and that, in consequence of the growth of the womb, the 

 caduca, at first single, is separated into two layers. But I now pos- 

 sess so many facts in favor of the doctrine laid down above, that I 

 cannot unite in any respect with the sentiment of these authors. 



406. Ruysch, Haller, the two Hunters, M. Lobstein, and all those 

 who have treated at some length of the membrana caduca, say they 

 have met with vessels in it, even in great numbers, and, consequent- 

 ly, that it is organised. I, on the contrary, do not believe that it is 

 organised at any period of gestation. It is so easy to convince one's 

 self of its inorganic condition by examining it in a fresh after-birth, 

 that I can hardly understand how this remark has escaped the atten- 

 tive observers whom I have above mentioned, as well as all those 

 who have succeeded them. 



By examining it previously to the end of the second month, it will 

 be found to be soft, supple, spongy; that it is very elastic, tears with 

 extreme facility, and contains not a vestige of organic elements ; 

 that it is only contiguous to the womb, and adheres to the chorion 

 merely by means of the villi that always cover the ovule. 



At the close of pregnancy, it preserves the same softness, the 

 same elasticity: it is always of a reddish gray color, easily reduci- 

 ble into shreds; its adhesions to the uterus have not undergone any 

 change, only its epichorion layer has become considerably thinner, 

 in consequence of the mechanical distension it has been subjected 

 to; its composition is in all respects the same as at first; in one 

 word, from the instant of its formation, until its exclusion from the 

 sexual organs, it has never appeared to me that the caduca could be 

 regarded in any other light than as a simple inorganic layer; how- 

 ever, I can affirm that I have carefully examined it in more than four 

 hundred specimens discharged at full term or by abortion. 



407. It is true that it is sometimes sprinkled with reddish, stellated 

 points, or bloody stri2e, Avhich might, under certain circumstances, 

 induce a belief of the existence of vessels in its substance; we may 

 also see, especially on its inner surface, an extremely delicate pel- 

 licle, which might frequently be mistaken for a cellular coat; lastly, 

 it also seems to be pretty frequently formed of fibres placed side by 

 side, or even interlaced in various directions; but these spots, and 

 striae of blood, no more indicate the presence of vessels here, than 

 when they are met with on those membraniform concretions that 

 are thrown off by children in croup, &c. 



408. If this membrane were really organic, if it were the seat of 

 a real circulation, can we conceive that it would never contract any 

 adhesions, that it would not be intimately blended with the internal 



