541 
of Edinburgh, Session 1874-75. 
rous orifices, easily seen with a pocket lens, which were the 
months of depressions or crypts in the wall of the pit, some lying 
almost at right angles, others obliquely to the wall of the pit itself. 
The pits, with their numerous crypts, were lined by epithelial 
cells, similar in character to those of the sheep, and these cells 
rested on a highly vascular connective tissue, in which the mater- 
nal capillaries formed a compact network. But I should state that 
in the cow a larger proportion of these cells had preserved the 
columnar form of the epithelium of the non-gravid uterine mucosa. 
The surface of the uterine mucosa between the cotyledons pre- 
sented the mouths of the tubular, branched, utricular glands, which 
extended more obliquely to the surface than in the sheep, so that 
in vertical sections through the membrane they were frequently cut 
through and divided ; segments of each gland were as a rule seen, 
though sometimes the stem of a gland mounted to the surface to 
open by an obliquely-directed orifice. Gflands were also present in 
the connective tissue forming the neck of the cotyledon, but none 
were seen to communicate with the pits. 
The foetal cotyledons were situated on the umbrella-shaped 
maternal cotyledons, and their numerous villi occupied the pits. 
The stems of the villi were comparatively large, and studded with 
multitudes of minute tufts, which, arising obliquely or almost at 
right angles to the main stem, entered and occupied the crypts. 
The minute villi forming these tufts were so slender and filiform 
that each terminal offshoot contained only a single capillary loop. 
The villi were in contact with the epithelium cells, and in drawing 
them out of the pits, more especially in drawing the tufts out of the 
crypts, multitudes of the lining epithelial cells came away with them. 
From the differences in shape of the maternal cotyledon in the 
cow and in the sheep, there is not the same difficulty in unlocking 
the foetal from the maternal placenta in the former animal as in 
the latter. 
For the purpose of studying the shed placenta of the sheep, I 
procured the after-birth from the ewe as soon as it was passed, and 
immersed it in strong spirit. Some foetal tufts were then exa- 
mined without any other preparation ; but others were immersed in 
glycerine jelly, so as to bind the several constituents of the tuft 
together. Thin slices were then removed from the hardened tufts, 
