CHORION. 159 



vessels; so that as there are only three of these, it is difficult for 

 them to give birth to the others, which amount to several hundred. 

 Further, these villosities, all independent of each other, are regu- 

 larly spread over the whole periphery of the ovule, while the cord 

 and placenta are only connected with one point of this vesicle; and 

 notwithstanding the efforts of an infinitude of very able anatomists, 

 nobody has proved that they are hollow rather than concrete, vas- 

 cular rather than solid cellular filaments; lasdy when examined with 

 a lens, they are found to form certain areolar spongioles, and not 

 permeable conduits. 



416. The abnormal continuance, or preternatural growth of the 

 swellings abovementioned have led me to suppose that such hyda- 

 tids as are found in bunches in the womb are not vesicular worms, 

 as is commonly supposed, but rather the product of an abortive 

 ovum, whose small gangliform bodies have taken on an unnatural 

 growth. I am in possession of a considerable number of specimens 

 which sustain this view of them; some of them I have shown to 

 M. Desormeaux, and again, very recently, M. Delange, physician 

 at Falaise, has sent me one, the examination of which leaves no 

 doubt on this point. My opinion on this subject is further fortified 

 by the cases of Albinus, Wrisberg, Reuss, Sandifort, and even by 

 those recently made public by Madame Boivin. 



417. Until the third, fourth or fifth week of pregnancy, the inner 

 surface of the chorion is in contact with a very delicate lamella, 

 constituting part of a peculiar body which I shall, provisionally, de- 

 nominate the relicuhtted sac. From this period until the sixth week 

 or second month, it is no longer separated from the amnios except 

 by a perfectly transparent, vilriform substance. In the natural state, 

 this substance never contracts any intimate adhesions to any organ 

 capable of altering its natural appearances. 



418. According to Needham, J. Fabricius, Noorthwyck, Harvey, 

 Lacourvee, Hoboken, Liltre, Rouhalt, (fee. the thickness of the cho- 

 riott is considerable; but the error of these anatomists evidently 

 depends upon their having confounded the chorion and caducous 

 membrane under the same title. 



I have studied the chorion, whether at term or other periods of 

 pregnancy, in a great number of specimens, and have always found 

 in my dissections, that it is every where transparent and thin, as 

 well upon the placenta as elsewhere. This, indeed, is a fact, which 

 any one may readily ascertain, by taking care to macerate a na- 

 tural afterbirth in water, so as more easily to separate the reflected 

 cadiica from it. Then the appearances of the chorion are found to 



