On the structure of the corpus luteum. And An account of a foetus of seven months, with its placenta partially adherent to a naevus occupying the scalp and dura mater / By Robert Lee.

  • Lee, Robert, 1793-1877.
Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the structure of the corpus luteum. And An account of a foetus of seven months, with its placenta partially adherent to a naevus occupying the scalp and dura mater / By Robert Lee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    until a more perfect knowledge of the origin of the amnion is obtained. The umbilical cord and band must have been formed at the same time, when the embryo and amnion were in immediate contact, and probably before the end of the third week after conception. Paul Portal has described and figured a malformed foetus, between the integuments of whose forehead and the placenta there passed a long slender band, formed of the amnion and chorion ; the eyes of the foetus were closed and deformed; the feet clubbed ; the ring-finger of the right hand was wanting, and the left arm lame and incapable of extension. Portal has offered no explanation of the manner in which this adhesion between the placenta and foetus was formed, and concludes the history with this observa¬ tion : “ L’on voit sou vent des choses surprenantes dans les accouchemens, et on peut dire que la nature se joue dans la generation.”* In Mr. Pole’s case of extraordinary malformation in a foetus, the bones of the head, above the orbits, were almost entirely deficient. “ The most extra¬ ordinary circumstance in this case,” he observes, “ is the attachment of the placenta to the upper part of the child’s head, which was not by a mere membranous union, but of its more solid and com¬ pact parts. The largest portion of the placenta lay over the occiput and scapulae, and extended con¬ siderably to the right and left side of the head ; so that in viewing the child, as I have represented it in * La Pratique des Accouchemens. Paris, 1685. p. 192. B