184 APPENDAGES OF THE FCETUS. 



Previously to this period, the villous matter of the chorion does 

 not contain any of them, and this villous portion may until then be 

 compared to the hairy part of the roots of plants. It contains, in- 

 deed, spongioles, radicles, and articulated filaments analogous to 

 those described by MM. De Candolle, Correa and Dutrochet; if it 

 does take up any fluids from the surrounding parts, it must imbibe 

 or absorb them after the manner of vegetables. At a later period, 

 vascular channels are formed, as happens in new tissues. Being at 

 first much smaller than the radicles with which they are surrounded, 

 they do not seem to extend throughout the whole length of the 

 chorion, even at a pretty advanced period of their growth. I have 

 injected them with colored alcohol, size, spirits of turpentine, &c., 

 at the third and fourth months, and afterwards examined them with 

 the microscope, and although the injection had passed into vessels 

 finer than those of the choroid, it always stopped at a considerable 

 distance from the extremities of the villous branches. This portion, 

 which cannot be injected, has always appeared to me to be, like the 

 primitive tomentum, unprovided with any central channel, to be of a 

 spongy nature, and to absorb only by means of imbibition. 



The bands and solid white filaments that are found in the placenta 

 even after delivery, and which are attached to the chorion, are not, 

 as some contemporary authors too confidently assert, obliterated ves- 

 sels: they never were hollow, and remain solid, as they were at the 

 commencement. They are similar to those which connect the re- 

 flected portion of the anhistous membrane to the villous coat, and be- 

 long to some primitive branches of the villous coat of the ovule, in 

 wiiich no vessels were developed.* 



Do the venous capillaries appear before the arterial capillary ves- 

 sels ? Is the contrary the case ? The assertions of Beclard, of 

 Meckel, of Lobstein, &c., concerning this point in anatomy, are any 

 thing but conclusive: having always met with arterial at the same 

 time with venous branches, I am disposed to believe that both these 

 kinds of canals appear together; and how could it be otherwise ? 

 If the blood enters in one, must it not return by the other kind of 

 vessels? 



* I maintained this opinion in the year 1823 (Archiv. Gen. de Med. 1824), 

 and have ever since continued to inculcate it in my public lectures on midwifery- 

 I am, therefore, not without reason surprised to see MM. Breschet and Raspail 

 who have confirmed it by some recent microscopical experiments, endeavoring 

 to attribute it to themselves, or refer it to Carus, who never spoke of it before the 

 year 1827; M. Breschet should have recollected, however, that while examining 

 the granulations of the chorion with a lens in his study in February 1824, we 

 discussed this subject, and that he was not then of my way of thinking. 



