OECELLA. 399 



had become hypertropliied, — an alternative opinion also held by Prof. Turner.^ 

 These spots on Orcella are undoubtedly the structural and physiological equiva- 

 lents of the bare spots on the surface of the gravid uterus of the lemur, pig, tapir, 

 and camel, and to the smooth intercryptal areas of the uterus of the mare described 

 by Turner,^ and in part to the smooth surfaces distributed among the cryptose 

 areas of the uterus of Manis. Orca, however as Prof. Turner' has pointed out, 

 differs in the free surfaces of its mucosa being more uniformly cryptose than in 

 the pig, and more so, that there are no intermediate surfaces destitute of crypts 

 on which the glands can open, whereas in the pig* and mare, and I may add from 

 personal observation in the tapir and camel, as well as in Orcella and Platanista, 

 the crypts are collected into definite areas with distinct smooth surfaces interme- 

 diate to them. The distinction between the opening of the utricular glands of 

 Orca and Orcella is structurally important, because it does not exist between 

 Monodon monocerus as described by Turner^ and Flatanista as described further on 

 in this work. Orcella, Monodon, and Flatanista, as Cetaceans, would thus appear to 

 have one type of diffuse placentation, whereas Orca chiefly differs from them in 

 the absence of smooth areas encircling the mouths of the utricular glands. 



As I have already stated, the injections of the uterine mucosa were unsuccess- 

 ful, so that I cannot say anything regarding the distribution of the vessels in the 

 walls of the crypts and cryptlets, but vessels were distinctly visible crossing the 

 bare spots, (Plate XXXYII, fig. 9). 



In microscopic sections of the mucosa, some of these recesses were slightly 

 more open and empty than others, but these differences were probably produced 

 by manipulation. In nearly all the spaces, mucous corpuscles, granules, and lymphy 

 secretion, besides epithelium both of a cylindrical and tesselated character, were 

 abundant, and oily globules were not unfrequently commingled. 



Connective tissue and utricular glands. — The connective, nucleated, corpuscu- 

 lated uterine tissue, (Plate XXXYIII, figs. Qc and 11), subjacent to the crypt-layer, 

 was looser than in the non-gravid condition, and large vascular areas and channels, 

 (Plate XXXYIII, figs. 3, v, and 10), were met with here and there. But its most 

 pronounced character by far was the immense development of branching utricular 

 glands, (Plate XXXYIII figs. 10 and 11, ug), equally in both horns. They formed 

 a dense layer underlying the uterine mucosa, so dense that it could be dissected 

 from off it as a sheet of glands. To demonstrate the openings of the glands on the 

 uterine mucosa by actually tracing a gland tubule to its termination was a process 

 attended with considerable difficulty. Cutting out a square piece of the uterine 

 wall and fixing it slightly stretched on a leaded piece of cork under water with the 

 uterine mucosa downwards, the serous and muscular coat could be easily removed 

 from the glandular layer, and a gland tubule could be selected and traced to its 



^ Lect. p. 48. 2 x^ c., 40, fig. 5. ^ Ihid. p. 48. 



4 Turner, Trans. Eoy. Soc, Edin. vol, xxxvi. p. 490 ; Ercolani, Mamm. dell' Acad, delle Sc, de Bologna, 1873 ; 

 Turner, Lect. pp. 38-42. 



5 Lect. p. 50, 



