THE FEMALE GENITAL TEACT. 839 



capillary net-work at the surface of the cavernous bodies, indi- 

 rectly. The bulb of the vestibule is of the same structure as the 

 cavernous bodies of the clitoris. 



The placenta and the umbilical cord have been subjects of 

 research in my laboratory, both as to their development and nor- 

 mal condition and their pathological changes. Some of the stud- 

 ies are not yet completed. The results of some investigations 

 are laid down in the two following articles. 



A CONTRIBUTION TO THE HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE 

 HUMAN DECIDUA. BY J. W. FRANKL, M. D., NEW YORK.* 



It is acknowledged that the placenta represents a connective-tissue forma- 

 tion belonging to the myxomatous variety. Formerly some histologists 

 (Friedlander and others) were of the opinion that epithelial elements enter 

 into the construction of the placenta ; but since the publications of G. J. 

 Engelmann and Hanns Kundrat, and recently of Gerhard Leopold, this view 

 can no longer be maintained, and, with the exception of the epithelial cover- 

 ing of the villi of the placenta, we now scarcely look for epithelial bodies in 

 the stroma, either in its villous or solid part. 



The development of the placenta in its minutest elements has so far been 

 very little studied. We know, since the publication of W. Reitzt, that the 

 villi are originally solid masses, without any differentiation into stroma, 

 blood-vessels, and covering epithelium, which differentiation they present 

 only with the advancing growth of the embryo. Indeed, it is easy to satisfy 

 one's self about the correctness of the assertions of Reitz on growing 

 placentae of the second, third, and fourth months, where formed villosities 

 are already to be seen, beset with more or less distinctly pediculated buds of 

 a uniform structure. But how the solid part of the placenta, that nearest to 

 the amnion, advances in growth, especially the formation of the myxomatous 

 basis-substance, has not yet been elucidated. 



Engelmann and Kundrat | described the peculiar clusters of large decidua- 

 cells occurring in the growing decidua-layer of the placenta. They consider 

 these clusters as being in connection with the development of the villi. 



Gerhard Leopold repeatedly mentions their presence, and suggests that 

 these clusters, as he asserts, most numerous in the fifth month of develop- 

 ment of the placenta, are split into smaller and larger cells. How this is 

 done he does not say. 



George Hoggan and Frances Elizabeth Hoggan || also conclude that the 

 large, so-called embryonic multinuclear " decidua-cells " give rise to the 

 formative cells of the decidua, but they do not specify their view, nor 

 describe the way in which the latter originate from the former. 



Abstract of the author's paper. American Journal of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women 

 and Children, vol. xi., October, 1878. 



t ' Sitzungsberichte der Kais. Akail. d. Wisseuschaften in Wien," Bel. Ivii. 



t ' Untersuchungen iiber d. Uterus-Schleimhaut." Wiener mediz. Jahrbiicher, 1873. 



2 'Die Uterus-Schleiiuhaut wahrend der Schwangerschaft mid der Ban der Placenta." 

 Arch f. Gyuakologie, ii. Th., Bd. xi. 



|| 'Zur Pathologic u. Therapie d. Dysmenorrhcea membrauacea." Arch. f. Gynakologie, 



