644 SIR WM. TURNER ON THE PLACENTATION OF HALICORE DTTGONG. 



tubes varied according to the condition of their epithelial contents. When the cells 

 were granular, they and the tubes were more distinct than when the cells had a clearer 

 protoplasm. In the field included by a one-inch objective, it was quite exceptional to 

 see more than the mouth of a single gland. The glands were relatively of consider- 

 able length, from ^ to ^ (7 mm. to 13 mm.) inch, and occupied an area corresponding to 

 tln-ee or even four times the diameter of the field, covered by a one-inch objective, and 

 as in their course they passed very obliquely from the gland mouth, the mucous 

 membrane required to be stripped off in flakes of half an inch in diameter, in order to 

 obtain a view of the whole length of a gland. Vertical sections made through the thick- 

 ness of the mucous membrane also threw additional light upon the arrangement, and 

 enabled one to see the form and characters of the glandular epithelium. In these 

 sections the glands were divided sometimes longitudinally, at others obliquely, at others 

 transversely, and the segments occupied different planes in the vertical diameter of the 

 section; but as the glands were not numerous the segments seen in any given section 

 were few, and were separated from each other by relatively broad areas of inter- 

 glandular connective tissue (fig. 6). 



As the histological characters of the mucous membrane had been well preserved, the 

 form and arrangement of the glandular epithelium could be seen without difficulty. In 

 the greater part of the gland-tube the cells were not sufficiently elongated to be called 

 columnar epithelium, but were for the most part cubical in form, though some might be 

 called polygonal (fig. 8). They were arranged in a single row, and were in part attached 

 to the wall of the gland-tube, though in some sections they had become detached from 

 the wall and formed clusters of cells lying loose in the lumen. The cells were nucleated, 

 and the protoplasm as a rule was granular and opaque. The dilated part of the gland in 

 proximity to the mouth was, however, lined by more elongated cells, which could very 

 properly be called columnar epithelium. At the gland-mouth itself the cells were not 

 distinct, but seemed to be broken down into a formless debris (fig. 7). 



The interglandular connective tissue was also examined. The bundles of this tissue 

 were for the most part arranged parallel to the plane of the free surface of the mucous 

 membrane, and the membrane had consequently a tendency to split into layers running 

 in the same direction. This tissue was loaded with corpuscles, especially in its more 

 superficial layers, and, as I have seen in the mucous membrane of many other gravid uteri 

 which I have examined, the corpuscles varied in appearance. A large number, and those 

 more particularly in the superficial layers, had the spherical form, the size and the 

 nucleated granular protoplasm of leucocytes; and it was not unusual to find them 

 arranged in large numbers in rows situated between the bundles of connective tissue 

 (fig. 7). From their abundance there can, I think, be no question that they have some 

 definite functional import. Other corpuscles, more ovoid in form, had a similar kind of 

 protoplasm. But in addition, corpuscles, such as one is familiar with in such rapidly 

 growing connective tissue as the mucosa of gravid uteri, were seen in large numbers. 

 They were most distinct in the deeper layers of the mucosa, where the leucocytes were 



