300 PROFESSOR ROLLESTON ON THE 



in the College of Surgeons (Hunt. Mus. Phys. Series, 3584). It is not, however, easy 

 to say what line will exactly define the limits of deciduous from those of non-deciduous 

 serotina. For between the muscular coats (from which in the Simiadse and Rodents, 

 as in our own species, it is not easy to separate the mucous) and the deciduous utero- 

 placental structures a very considerable interval exists, filled up with loose lamellae of 

 tissue, the deeper of which, consisting of cells with large nuclei and tapering ends, 

 have a horizontal direction, and those more directly in connexion with the deciduous 

 layer a vertical one. In this interval a considerable number of large blood-vessels is 

 also to be seen ; so that we easily understand how, had the animal's life been preserved 

 and its uterus contracted, a lamellar cake, perforated and made irregular by vermiform 

 vessels, would, as we know it does in our own species, have come to project for a while 

 into the cavity of the organ at the placental site. The tissue, therefore, which would 

 have been persistent or non-deciduous serotina, differs little from the homologous layers 

 in the Human subject, except, perhaps, in being relatively somewhat more abundant. 

 In this point (as remarked in the Hunterian Catalogue, prep. 3584, and as may be seen by 

 comparing either what I suppose to be a drawing of the placenta whence that prepara- 

 tion was taken, viz. Sir Everard Home's plate 168, vol. iv. ' Comparative Anatomy,' or 

 Breschet's fig. 2, pis. 1 & 2, and fig. 4, pis. 3 & 4, Z. c, or Rudolphi's figure of a Mar- 

 moset's placenta, Abhand. Berlin Akad. 1828, with the description given of the Human 

 decidua serotina by Kolliker, I. c. p. 145 or p. 158, or by Priestley, 1. c. p. 48) this 

 Simious decidua serotina contrasts markedly with the Human. I must, however, add 

 that I could not note any similar difference in the placenta of a Chimpanzee {Troglodytes 

 niger) which I had an opportunity of seeing in the College of Surgeons. 



The chorion having been nearly entirely removed when the preparation I have been 

 describing came into my hands, I am unable to say whether the decidua reflexa retained 

 the completeness which it and the decidua vera are figured and described by Breschet' 

 as possessing. The lining membrane of the non-placental parts of the uterus was lowly 

 vascular and smooth internally ; and herein it resembles the decidua vera of the human 

 subject. In a case where even the placentae were morbidly adherent, it will not be 

 expected that the non-placental uterine membrane should have exfoliated. It is difiicult 

 to see, however, how the double membranes just referred to as figured by Breschet can 

 have been other than deciduous ; so that Kolliker''^ and Funke^ are scarcely justified in 

 speaking of the decidua vera, as well as the reflexa, as being exclusively Human struc- 

 tures. Their statement and Weber's (Zusatze, p. 417) as to the exclusively anthropoid 

 character of the decidua reilexa is, of course, also erroneous ; but what we have already 

 said is sufficient as to this envelope. I should add that Virchow^ has shown that the 



' Pis. 1 & 2. fig. 2, pis. 3 & 4. fig. 2, p. 444 of the Mdmoires de I'Institut, torn. xix. 1845. 



' L. c. p. 169. 



' Lehrbuch der Physiologie, 1858, ii. 929. 



' Virchow, Gesamm. Abhandlungen, p. 782, ISoti, cit. Dr. Duncan, Edin. Med. Journ., Dec. 1857. 



