NORMAL PARTURITION 



855 



delivery. It has then united, at the os internum, with the mucous mem- 

 brane of the neck, which has not participated in the formation of the 

 decidua. The muscular fibres, after parturition, present granules and 

 globules of fat in their substance, and are gradually reduced in size as 

 the uterus becomes smaller. Their involution is complete at about the 

 end of the second month. During the first month, and particularly 

 within the first two weeks after delivery, there is a sero-sanguinolent 

 discharge from the uterus, which is due to disintegration of the blood 

 and of the remains of the membranes in its cavity, this debris being 

 mixed with a certain quantity of sero-mucous secretion. This discharge 

 constitutes the lochia. It is at 

 first red but becomes paler as it 

 is reduced in quantity. 



Meconium. At about the 

 fifth month there is a certain 

 quantity of secretion in the 

 intestinal canal, which becomes 

 more abundant, particularly in 

 the large intestine, as develop- 

 ment advances. This is rather 

 light colored or grayish in the 

 upper portion of the small in- 

 testine, becoming yellowish in 

 the lower portion, and it is of a 

 dark greenish color in the colon. 



Fig. 247. Cholesterin extracted from meconium. 



The dark, pasty, adhesive mat- 

 ter, which is discharged from the rectum soon after birth, is called 

 meconium. 



The meconium appears to consist of a thick mucous secretion, with 

 abundant grayish granules, a few fatty granules, intestinal epithelium, 

 and frequently crystals of cholesterin. The color seems to be due to 

 granules of the coloring matter of the bile ; but the biliary salts can 

 not be detected in the meconium by Pettenkofer's test. The constituent 

 of meconium that possesses the greatest physiological importance, is 

 cholesterin. Although but few crystals of cholesterin are found on 

 microscopical examination, the simplest processes for its extraction will 

 reveal the presence of this substance in large quantity. In a specimen 

 of meconium in which a quantitative examination was made, the pro- 

 portion of cholesterin was 6.245 parts per 1000 (Flint). The meconium 

 contains cholesterin and no stercorin ; stercorin in the adult resulting 

 from a transformation of cholesterin by the digestive liquids, which are 

 not secreted during intra-uterine life. 



