Human placentation : an account of the changes in the uterine mucosa and in the attached fetal structures during pregnancy / by J. Clarence Webster.

  • John Clarence Webster
Date:
[1901]
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Human placentation : an account of the changes in the uterine mucosa and in the attached fetal structures during pregnancy / by J. Clarence Webster. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    0 without the key to the solution of many difficulties, and is conse- quently forced to have recourse to specious speculation. One must also mention the hurtful influence of party or na- tional bias in the discussion of scientific problems. The causes of this unfortunate complication are not to he easily explained. It is apt to be manifested especially among younger investigators. Thus, the department of embryological research, with which I am particularly concerned, lias become, even in its widest mammalian relationships, a fierce battleground; the contending parties being, on the one hand, a Teutonic host, and, on the other, a triple alliance of French, Belgians, and Dutch; a few British and Americans being found with both parties. As a result of this state of matters, confusion is being worse confounded, and, in addition, owing to lack of uniformity as re- gards nomenclature, new investigators find it difficult to assign to the different published works their proper proportional values, or to correlate them in an intelligible synthesis. Very recently attempts have been made to establish the pathol- ogy of the so-called “Deciduoma Malignum.” I am safe in say- ing that no microscopic examinations of any tissue in the body have given rise to so many different interpretations and explana- tions. For example, in regard to one set of cells described, some observers think that they are maternal in origin; others that they are fetal. Some think they are in no way connected with the influence of pregnancy, but are due to degeneration in the new growth; others think they are entirely-related to the influence of gestation. There are also differences of opinion as to whether they are of epiblastic or mesoblastic origin. These differences must be related primarily to the faults of embryologists; they are mainly accountable for the confusion of the pathologists. ‘‘De- ciduoma malignum will be a casus belli just as long as the em- bryologists differ in regard to the normal changes in the decidua and in the attached fetal structures. In the course of my investigations, which have been carried on during; the past eleven years, T have examined the pregnant uterus
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