PROFESSOR W. TURNER ON THE PLACENTATION OF THE APES. 
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larger size than the fusiform corpuscles of the sub -epithelial tissue, and was, I believe, 
the layer of muscularis mucosae (fig 2). 
A search was then made for utricular glands in the non-placental part of the 
mucosa. I did not see the mouths of any glands opening on the free surface ot the 
mucosa ; but on tearing off thin portions of the membrane and magnifying them 
100 diameters I occasionally saw an appearance of elongated tubes, situated in the 
deeper part of the membrane. The tubes were tortuous, and contained an epithelium, 
the cells of which were so granular and opaque that their form could not be definitely 
determined. The sub- epithelial tissue was very vascular, the capillary network 
having been injected from the aorta and uterine arteries. At the fundus uteri, where 
the adhesion between the chorion and mucous membrane was so close, the injected 
sub -epithelial tissue was often torn through and remained attached to the chorion, 
when that membrane was raised from its position. 
In vertical sections through the mucosa numerous spaces were seen in the sub- 
epithelial tissue. Most of these were blood vessels divided either transversely, 
obliquely, or longitudinally, and they were either partially or wholly filled with 
injection. Other spaces, however, were occasionally present which were not vascular ; 
some of these were elongated slits, others were more irregular in outline. Kondra- 
towicz has described spaces in the decidua vera of his specimen, lined by an 
epithelium of short columnar cells, which he regards as the deeper ends of the utricular 
glands. The spaces which I have observed had no epithelial lining, then’ wall being 
directly formed of the corpuscles of the sub-epithelial tissue. If these spaces were 
not gaps in the tissue, formed in the act of making the section, they were probably 
dilated utricular glands, the epithelium lining which had degenerated and dis- 
appeared. The sub-epithelial tissue of the mucosa, though not so compact as in 
a non-gravid uterus of a Macacus to be subsequently described, did not possess 
the loose, spongy character of the decidua serotina in this animal. 
The muscularis mucosae of the decidua vera was attached to the proper muscular 
coat of the uterus by a thin and lax layer of delicate submucous connective tissue. 
No decidua reflexa could be seen as a distinct layer, for as already stated the 
chorion was closely adapted to the ridges and furrows of the mucous surface. The 
flakes of uterine tissue which were adherent to the chorion, when that membrane was 
stripped off, were the more superficial parts of the decidua vera — sometimes its 
epithelial layer alone, or at other times both epithelium and sub-epithelial tissue — - 
and not a separate layer of decidua reflexa. 
A thick layer of modified mucous membrane intervened between the placental lobes 
and the adjacent part of the wall of the uterus, and formed a decidua placentalis, 
homologous with the decidua serotina in the human uterus. The description of the 
decidua placentalis will be more appropriately considered along with the structure of 
the placenta. 
