492 PROFESSOR TURNER ON THE GRAVID UTERUS AND 



the membrane in the human gravid uterus is due, not only, as Sharpey had 

 shown, to changes in the uterine glands, but to an increase in the amount of 

 the inter-glandular tissue, by the formation of "a texture which consisted 

 entirely of nucleated particles." Ercolani had also observed, in the various 

 uteri which he had examined,"" this increased growth of the uterine tissue, and 

 in accordance with our present modes of expression, described it as formed 

 by the proliferation of the connective tissue. But he also affirmed that, in 

 all the placental mammals, through the transformation and folding of the 

 uterine mucous membrane in the interspaces between the utricular glands, a 

 new glandular organ is formed, which, however flexuous the mucous membrane 

 may become in different animals, never loses the type of a simple glandular 

 follicle. And further, that it is into the follicles of this new gland-organ that 

 the villi of the chorion penetrate, and not into the utricular glands. 



The examination which I have made into the minute structure of the uterine 

 mucous membrane of Orca has satisfied me that in it also a great growth of the 

 inter- glandular tissue had taken place, for not only was the connective tissue with 

 its fusiform nucleated corpuscles largely developed, but I distinctly recognised 

 also a layer of sub-epithelial corpuscles, situated close to the surface of the 

 mucous membrane. Epithelial-lined, cup-shaped crypts, for the reception of 

 villi, had formed in great numbers, which had added largely to the superficial area 

 of the membrane. Now, there can be no doubt but that these crypts, which 

 obviously correspond to the simple gland follicles of Ercolani, could be formed 

 by a flexuous growth of the mucous membrane, and that the difference presented 

 by this surface in Orca and in the pig is simply due to the foldings being 

 more complicated in the former than in the latter — a difference which is in 

 accordance with the greater size and numbers of the villi in the cetacean than 

 in the pachyderm. 



In Ruminants, which furnish such characteristic examples of the Coty- 

 ledonary placenta, utricular glands can be readily recognised in the uterine 

 mucous membrane. In the gravid uterus of the sheep the mouths of these 

 glands may be seen with the naked eye opening on the plane surface of the 

 membrane in the intervals between the cotyledons, and, when vertical sections 

 are made, there is no difficulty in following them as comparatively straight tubes 

 through its thickness. In the deeper layer of the membrane they branch and 

 bear a strong resemblance to the utricular glands figured by Franck in the cow 

 and goat. They ascend also for some distance on the sides of the cotyledons, 

 but their relations to the centre and summits of each of these bodies, and to 

 the openings which admit the chorionic villi, are difficult to determine. Pro- 

 fessor Spiegelberg, however, maintains that the tubes which open on the sur- 



* He gives no description of the cetacean placenta. 



