284 PROFESSOR TURNER ON THE 
into patches by the removal of some of the cells in the act of peeling off the 
placenta. In other localities much wider intervals between the patches existed, 
so that their probable original continuity with each other was not at first sight 
so apparent. It was observed that the cells remained in position on those parts 
of the mucosa immediately superficial to its larger blood-vessels, whilst they 
were frequently absent from the surface of the membrane situated between 
these vascular trunks. The cells in a patch were in close contact with each 
other. They were short columnar cells; their free ends being either circular, 
or ovoid, or polygonal, and in many cases having the diameter of a white blood 
corpuscle, though others were somewhat larger (fig. 10). 
Both the non-deciduous serotina and the decidua reflexa were much more 
vascular than the mucosa of the non-placental area of the uterus. The increased 
vascularity was due to the blood-vessels being larger, and apparently more 
numerous in a given area. In all these localities vessels of capillary size were 
present, but the veins and arteries of the serotina and reflexa were considerably 
larger than those of the non-placental mucosa. This increase in size was not due 
to the formation of varicosities on limited portions of their walls, but toa general 
expansion of the vascular tube. No curling or cork-screw like arteries were 
seen, and the veins presented no unusual tortuosity. In the sub-epithelial layer of 
the non-deciduous serotina nerves were distinctly seen. The slender nerve trunks 
gave off fine branches, which ramified in the surrounding connective tissue until 
the finest branches consisted of but one or two fibres. The sub-epithelial con- 
nective tissue contained multitudes of well-marked connective tissue corpuscles. 
The broad laminze of mucosa which dipped into the primary fissures between 
the convolutions of the placenta had an interrupted layer of epithelial cells on 
their free surface, similar in shape but somewhat bigger than those of the non- 
deciduous mucosa just described. The arrangement and relative size of the 
blood-vessels were also the same, and utricular glands were present, though 
sparingly distributed in the sub-epithelial connective tissue. 
The structure of the delicate bands of deciduous mucosa which passed into 
the secondary and tertiary fissures in the substance of the convolutions was then 
examined. The free surface of these bands was covered by an epithelial layer, 
the cells of which were columnar like those of the non-deciduous mucosa; but 
their contents were more opaque and yellow, as if in process of fatty degenera- 
tion. Flake-like layers of cells were not unfrequently seen lying loose in the 
fluid in which these specimens were examined, as if they had become detached 
from the free surface of the decidua. In one or two instances rows of cells, as 
if the cellular contents of utricular glands, were observed, but no glands were 
seen in these delicate processes. The bands of decidua, lying in the secondary 
and tertiary fissures, consisted of a delicate membranous connective tissue, into 
which the blood-vessels of the non-deciduous mucosa were prolonged. These 

