88 ON THE PLACENTAL STRUCTURES OF THE TENREO 



A person who, like myself, is not always able to compare the 

 specimens in the Hunterian Collection with the descriptions given 

 of them in the Catalogues which are accessible at a distance from 

 London, would from the description of Prep. 3466, vol. v. Physio- 

 logical Series, be led to suppose, like myself, that the condition of 

 parts there described is the same as that which I saw in the 

 rat, and not that represented in fig. 1. tab. 8 of C. G. Carus's 

 'Tabulae Anatomiam Comparativam Illustrantes.' I have, how- 

 ever, since the appearance in Professor Huxley's ' Elements of 

 Comparative Anatomy ' (p. 107) of a sketch of the principal points 

 of this paper, satisfied myself by an examination of the specimen 

 No. 3466, Hunterian Museum, that I was wrong in supposing the 

 preparation to have been wrongly described as ' a rat's uterus at an 

 early stage of impregnation.' Preparation No. 3466 is, beyond 

 doubt, a preparation of an organ in much the same condition as 

 the organ figured by C. G. Carus in the plate just referred to. 

 But I submit that the words which follow those which I have 

 just quoted from the Hunterian Catalogue, viz. 'each of the 

 embryos is contained in a special dilatation appended to the side 

 of the uterine tube/ do not apply to the structures in that pre- 

 paration. For, firstly, what is spoken of as a ' special dilatation 

 appended to the side of the uterine tube' is in reality a conical 

 projection with its wall curving continuously with those of the 

 uterine tube, and not forming segments of another circle. And, 

 what is of more consequence, the embryos are contained in the 

 uterine tube, and what is contained in the misnamed ' special 

 dilatation appended' to it is merely serotinae and placenta. The 

 embryo of the rat, when only a line in length, is contained in the 

 uterine tube, and together with its envelopes, causes the calibre 

 of that tube to bulge outwards on both sides between its meso- 



e'paisse et plus saillante dans cet endroit qu'ailleurs.' M. Eobin says, in a note 

 of a previous paper of his, treating of this point : ' J'admettais done, a tort, avec les 

 autres que la serotine s'exfolie et s'e'limine pendant la dure'e des lochies.' The 

 appearance faithfully reproduced, but left without explanation, by M. Coste, which 

 these views enable us to understand, will be found in pi. 1 a, fig. 3. In his description 

 we read, ' Tache rougeatre que pr&sentait la muqueuse uteYine, tout le reste de son 

 etendue dtant exsangue.' It is situated on the posterior wall, near the entrance of 

 the left Fallopian tube of a uterus, ' d'une femme, mere de plusieurs enfants, morte 

 empoisonne quelques jours apres la menstruation.' There can be little doubt, I 

 apprehend, that this vascular areola indicates the gradually diminishing serotina of, 

 probably, the last pregnancy. 



