On the structure of the human placenta, with special reference to the origin of the decidua reflexa / by D. Berry Hart and G. Lovell Gulland.

  • Hart, D. Berry (David Berry), 1851-1920.
Date:
[1889?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the structure of the human placenta, with special reference to the origin of the decidua reflexa / by D. Berry Hart and G. Lovell Gulland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    ,-5S On the Structure of the Human Placenta, with Special Reference to the Origin of the Decidua Reflexa. By D. Berry Hart, M.D., F.R.C.P.Ed., F.R.S.E., and O. Lovell Gulland, M.D., F.R.C.P.Ed. In investigating the structure of the advanced extra- uterine placenta, one of the authors was struck with the fact that the placenta developed there entirely in connective tissue. In the placenta of advanced normal gestation, it has been supposed by many good observers that the foetal villi, in addition to their own epithelium, derived a covering from the maternal epithelium,—from the surface epithelium of the serotina, or from that of the uterine glands. The generally accepted view in regard to the human placenta has been that the villi of the fertilised ovum grafted themselves on a portion of the hypertrophied mucous membrane, this portion being now termed the decidua serotina; that by the mutual ingrowth of the serotina and villi the placenta was formed ; while round the developing ovum there very early grew coalescing folds of decidua, the so-called decidua reflexa. On the one hand were the chorionic villi covered by the foetal epithelium, on the other the connective tissue of the serotina with its special layer of epithelium,—these forming as it were the elements from which the complex placenta was to evolve. This view is highly unsatisfactory, so far as the human placenta is concerned. It does not explain the overwhelm- ing frequency with which the human fertilised ovum grafts itself on a certain area of the genital tract, viz. in the uterine cavity proper; it assumes a function for the surface epithel- ium which has never been proved; and, finally, it leaves the origin of the decidua reflexa a complete mystery. Why should decidual folds at the edge of the serotina rise and cover B