480 THE PHYSIOLOGY OF REPRODUCTION 



reaction of hsemoglobin at the points where it comes in contact 

 with extravasated blood. It has been stated that placental 

 extracts produce haemolysis in vitro (Veit and Scholten ^), but 

 whether a similar action takes place in the body is unknown. 

 Iron-containing compounds are also found in the villi. 

 Using the method of HaU, which 

 demonstrates iron in loose organic 

 compounds, Hofbauer found none such 

 in the superficial layers of the syncytium, 

 but an increasing number of granules 

 were present in the deeper parts. In 

 the'mesoblast they again decreased in 

 number, and were altogether absent 

 near the capillary walls (Fig. 130). He 

 suggests that at first the hsemoglobin 

 derivatives are in too firm combination 

 to take on the stain, then they are 

 further broken down and stained 

 granules appear, and later they are 

 again synthesised into non-stainable 

 compounds which reach the foetal 

 circulation. Such changes were char- 

 acteristic of the first half of pregnancy. 

 In the second half the iron-reaction of 

 the villi was " extraordinarily slight." 



Iron is stored in the Uver and other 

 foetal organs. According to Bunge,^ it 

 diminishes rapidly after birth, and he 

 supposes that it compensates for the insufficient amount of 

 iron contained in the mammary secretion. 



Albumen. — The transmission of albumen to the foetus of the 

 rabbit has already been referred to (see p. 435). In the human 

 placenta attention has been chiefly directed to the investigation 

 of the decomposition products of proteins. Matthes * and 



Fig. 130.— Iron granules 

 in a villus of the pla- 

 centa in Man. (From 

 Hofbauer's Biologie 

 der menschlichen Pla- 

 zenta, Braumiiller.) 



1 Veit and Scholten, " Synzytiolyse und Hamolyse," Zeitschr. f. Qeburtsh. 

 It. Oyndk., vol. xlix., 1903. 



" Bunge, " Ueber die Aufnahme des Eisens in den Organismus des 

 Sauglings," Zeit. f. phys. Ghem., vol. xvii., 1893. 



' Matthes, " Ueber Autolyse der Placenta," Geniralbl. f. Oynak., 1901. 



