THE PLACENTA. 



tissue has a fibrous appearance, with very numerous decidual cells, which frequently 

 obscure the fibres (fig. 54, B). In and after the fifth month of pregnancy, a number 



A Fig. 58. FRONT AND SIDE VIEWS OF AN EARLY HUMAN OVUM 



FOUR TIMES THE NATURAL SIZE (from Reichert). 



This ovum is supposed to be of thirteen days after impreg- 

 nation. The surface bare of villi is that next the wall of the 

 uterus, showing at c, the opacity produced by the thickened 

 embryonic disc. The villi covered chiefly the marginal parts of 

 the surface. 



of large multinucleated giant cells are found scat- 

 tered about in the tissue. They occur most abun- 

 dantly in the outermost layer of the decidua 



serotina, and have been described by Friedlander and by Leopold as growing at a 

 later stage (eighth or ninth month) into the veins which pass through this layer, so 



Fig. 59. VIEW OF THE INTERIOR OF THE HUMAN GRAVID UTERUS AT THE TWENTY-FIFTH DAY 



(from Farre after Coste). 



M, uterine wall ; o, ovum with villous chorion ; dv, deciilua vera ; dr, decidua reflexa, divided round 

 the margin of the ovum, and turned clown so as to expose its pitted surface, which has been removed 

 from the ovum. The right ovary is divided, and shows in section the plicated condition of the early 

 corpus luteum. 



