EXTRACTS AND ABSTRACTS FROM FOREIGN JOURNALS. 279 



line, were colourless, and not acted upon by water, ammonia, or acetic 

 acid. 2d, Filaments differently arranged, of a slaty colour (ardoists) 

 swollen at different points, either in the middle, or at their extremities. 

 Occasionally they were articulated. Several of them were seen dis- 

 tinctly to take their origin from the round bodies : some of them were 

 more than a line in length, and in general their diameter was about 

 1- 600th of a line. They were likewise unaffected by water, ammonia, 

 or acetic acid. Allgemeine Zeitung fur Chirurge, #c. ; and Gazette 

 Med. de Paris, April, 1842 ; quoted in Lond. and Edin. Month. Journ. 

 Med. Science, July, 1842, p. 595. 



Dr. Sharpey on the Membrana Decidua and Uterine Glands. The 

 uterine glands alluded to in the text have now been ascertained^ exist 

 in several orders of mammiferous animals, and from their enlarged size 

 and augmented secretion during pregnancy, as well as the peculiar con- 

 nexion which is then established between them and the foetal mem- 

 branes, it has been inferred that they are in some important way sub- 

 servient to the nutrition of the foetus. The uterine cotyledons of 

 Ruminants were very generally considered to be of a glandular nature 

 by the older anatomists, and as destined to supply a nutrient matter 

 to the foetus ; indeed, it had not escaped notice, that these bodies ac- 

 tually yield a mucilaginous secretion. But besides the cotyledons, Mal- 

 pighi discovered glands opening on all parts of the inner surface of the 

 uterus of those animals, and recognised them as secreting organs. He 

 has described them specially in the gravid uterus of the sheep. (Opp. 

 1687, vol. ii. p. 220.) At a recent period, the uterine glands of Rumi- 

 nants were again observed by Baer, who also discovered similar glands 

 in the sow ; and although he erroneously supposed they were absorbent 

 vessels, he described them well, and showed that they were connected 

 in a peculiar manner with the ovum ; the dilated orifices of the glands 

 being attached to a small vascular spots on the surface of the chorion, 

 which, in the sow, he describes as formed by little circular or star-like 

 elevations of the membrane surrounding a central depression. (Ueber 

 die Gefaessverbindung zwischen Mutter and Frucht, 1821.) This ar- 

 rangement was justly considered by Dr. E. H. Weber, who afterwards 

 investigated the subject, as a provision for the accumulation of the se- 

 creted matter of the glands, and for securing its effectual exposure to the 

 blood-vessels of the foetus. Weber also more fully described the glands 

 in Ruminants, and observed glands of the same nature, though of a dif- 

 ferent form, in the uterus of the rabbit (loc. cit.) Still more lately, 

 uterine glands have been discovered in the pregnant porpoise, by Dr, 

 Eschricht of Copenhagen ; and in the gravid uterus of the cat, the same 

 observer found oblong cells lying under the mucous membrane, which 

 he considers to be glandular cavities, though he could not. discover 

 their orifices on the inner surface of the membrane. (De organis quae 

 resp. et nutr. fcetus mammal, inserviunt. Hafn. 1837, p. 43.) Having 

 had occasion to observe these glands in the uterus of the bitch, and 

 having examined their condition in various stages of pregnancy, as well 



