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FCETAL NUTRITION: THE PLACENTA 479 



syncytium, Hofbauer ^ suggests that it may be split up into 

 fatty acids and glycerine before absorption, and then re-synthesised 

 by the foetal placenta (Fig. 129). Thence it is carried by the 

 blood in a soluble form, and is again deposited in droplets in 

 the heart, liver, lungs, alimentary tract, and spleen of the foetus. 

 In the later months of pregnancy there is a considerable deposit 

 of fat in the subcutaneous tissue. 



Fig. 129. — Fat in a, villus of the human placenta. (From Hofbauer'a 

 Biologie der menschlichen Plazenta, Braumiiller.) 



fs., fat globules in deeper layers of syncytium ; /«'., fat in syncytium between 

 Langhans' cells ; fb., fat in mesoblast ; fv., fat in vacuolated cell. 



Iron. — In Man, Peters found evidence of- the presence of 

 red blood corpuscles in the trophoblast of the early ovum, and 

 Ulesco-Stroganowa ^ states that they are also present in the 

 syncytium in later stages. This has been disputed by 

 Kworostansky ^ and Hofbauer, who maintain that the corpuscles 

 are first dissolved. More recently Bryce and Teacher found no 

 evidence of the ingestion of red blood corpuscles by the tropho- 

 blast, while Bonnet* has shown that the syncytium gives the eosin- 



' Hofbauer, Qrundziige einer Biologie der menschlichen Plazenta, Leipzig, 

 1905. 



^ Ulesco-Stroganowa, " Beitrage zur Lehre vom mikrbskopischen Bau der 

 Placenta," Monatsschr. f. Qeburtsh. u. Oynak., vol. iii. 



' Kworostansky, " Ueber Anatomic und Pathologic der Placenta," Arch, 

 f. Oynak., vol. Ixx. 



* Bonnet, quoted by Hofbauer, loc. cit. 



