The early relationship of the oosperm to the endometrium / by James Oliver.

  • Oliver, James, M.D.
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The early relationship of the oosperm to the endometrium / by James Oliver. 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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    for embryonic development and growth; conse- quently we must banish from our minds the idea that the oosperm is at any time in any sense of the word a parasite. Too unhesitatingly, in my opinion, and on very slender testimony indeed, it has been admitted and proclaimed that the oosperm is detained in the cavity of the uterus in some sort of decidual envelope. Let me here recall some facts concerning the sub- ject of placentation in the lower animals, as we may thereby glean some very valuable information. In cetaceae the germ mass from first to last is every- where placental, so that during the whole period of gestation in this mammal the processes of metabol- ism in the embryo are carried on by diosmosis through the agency of the entire chorion, the mu- cous lining of the uterus in its whole extent being at the same time both a secreting and an absorbing structure. In this case the villous bodies of the whole chorion are to all intents and purposes simi- larly endowed, there is no functional distinction. In the horned ruminants we find a remarkable modi- fication of this universal placenta; some villi atrophy but here and there over the entire surface of the chorion groups of villi hypertrophy and growing more and more form eventually many separate pla- centulfe. These patchy overgrowths in the chorion correspond with and are correlated nutritively to cotyledonary processes or caruncles which may be observed studding the interior of the uterine horns in these animals. In the cow these cotyledonous placentulae are sometimes exceedingly numerous; in individual cases as many as eighty have been de- tected. Again, in the cat and carnivorous animals generally the placenta is more or less annular in shape, the villi participating in its formation being grouped together like a belt, whilst the villi over the rest of the chorion have practically vanished. In all the lower mammals, not even excepting the