1150 PROF. J. p. HILL AND MR. R. H. BURNE ON THE 



and an inner thinner layer of circular fibres ; between the two 

 layers there are situated the main branches of the uterine vessels. 

 In the muscularis there are present numerous endothelially lined 

 cleft-like lymphatic channels. 



In the intervals betAveen its much subdivided folds the mucosa 

 appears as a relatively thin layer, well supplied with vessels. 

 Over much of its surface the uterine epithelium has separated 

 in ovir material, but in places it is quite well preserved. It 

 consists of a single layer of, for the most part, lelatively large 

 and plump cubical cells with active looking oval or spherical 

 nuclei (text-fig. 1 ), though here and there the cells ai'e narrow 

 columnar or even flattened and plate-like. It varies in thickness 

 from '016 to •008 mm. Whilst its free surface tends to be smooth 

 and regular, its deep surfa,ce, in the absence of a basement mem- 

 brane, is wavy and iiTegular, the basal ends of its cells being 

 directly applied to the walls of the subjacent capillaries which, 

 as Milne Edwards (3) and Turner (5) have shown, form a richly 

 developed subepithelial plexus. Both Turner (5) and Strahl (15) 

 have maintained that the uterine epithelium is actively secretory, 



Text-fieure 1. 



Section uterine epithelium and underlying capillaries. 



but of that we have no positive evidence in our material. Lym- 

 phoid exudation no doubt plays a considerable role in the nutrition 

 of the foetus, and it is quite likely that the uterine epithelium is 

 concei-ned in its transference to the trophoblast cells. 



The uterine glands (PI. Y. fig. 12, ut.gl.) are mainly confined 

 to the basal part of the mucosa, though not infrequently they are 

 found extending fa^r out in the folds. They show a distinct 

 tendency to be arranged in groups separated by regions in which 

 they are sparse or absent, but we have not been able to determine 

 if they open together, on restricted bare areas as described for 

 other Madagascar Lemurs by Milne Edwards (3), Turner (5), and 

 Strahl (16). We have not been able to distinguish such areas in 

 surface examination of the mucosa, and in the sections the glands 

 are seen to open between the bases of the folds by way of duct- 

 like involutions of the uterine epithelium. 



The glands are most numerous in the thick mucosa of the 

 right horn, and are for the most part of relatively small diameter 

 (•048-"12 mm.), though some are much thicker (up to "35 mm.). 



The glands are lined by a single layer of low columnar cells 

 with spherical deeply staining nuclei in their basal halves, and 

 are actively secretory, the secretion appearing in the gland 



