Lectures on the development of the gravid uterus / by William O. Priestley.
- Priestley, William Overend, 1829-1900.
- Date:
- 1860
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Lectures on the development of the gravid uterus / by William O. Priestley. 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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![surface, partaking of the increased vitality in the entire genital apparatus, becomes more vascular. Consentaneously with the increased supply of blood, all the elements in the mucous tissue become more developed. The qiiantity of eiDithelium and other elements are so increased, that the entire mucous membrane of the fundus and body of the iiterus forms a thick pulpy layer, and acquires a disposition to shed off from the fibrous structures beneath. Tliis phenomenon is the more remarkable, as you will remember, in the unimpreguated state, the mucous membrane was so closely adherent, as to be almost inseparable from its subtending elements. The pulpy membrane thus formed, by a transformation of the mucous membrane, is intended as a covering for the ovum when it arrives in the uterine cavity, and is known as the memhrana decidua of Hunter, or the external envelope of the foetus in utero. Previous to the time of William Hunter, no author seems to have distinguished the decidua from the rest of the coverings of the foetus, and to this celebrated observer is undoubtedly due the merit of discovering its existence as a special membrane, having its origin in the uterus, and being present there before the arrival of the embryo, with its own special ovular tunics. Since Hunter’s time it has received much attention, and many and various have been the names applied to it by different authors. Indeed, the diversified nomenclature of the decidua may considerably embarrass you in reading English and foreign works on midwifery, unless you arc acquainted with the variety of synonyms under which this mem- brane is made to appear. For instance, while Hunter applied to it the term IMembrana Decidua, Osiander calls it the Membrana Mucosa; Danz, the Membrana Caduca; Burdach, the Nidamentum; Breschet, the Perione; and Velpeau, the Membrana Anhist^ the last involving the erroneous theory that it is destitute of vessels. Opinions have differed from time to time as to the origin and nature of the decidua. Millot, a French obstetrician, who flourished fifty years ago, supposed that the union of the male semen with the mucous of the womb, gave rise to a consistent layer, which spread itself over the inner surface of the uterus, and afterwards acquired vessels in its structure. The famous John Hunter at one time described it as an inflammatory product, thrown out upon the inner surface of the uterus, and resembling the membranous exudations (ff croupy inflammation in the windpipe. In another place, he speaks of it as formed of coagulated blood, with blood-vessels ])enetrating it, after the fashion in which Idood-vessels penetrate.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22334452_0016.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
