MOLES.
Mole was the name formerly given to the fibrinous masses which women sometimes pass during menstruation, and also to the altered products of abortion. Hence the distinction between true moles and folic, moles, which were further classified according to their appearance as fleshy, ves icular, and watery moles. Now-a-clays, under the name of the hydatid or vesicular mole, or the designations of cystic degeneration of the chorion and the placenta, dropsy of the chorional myxoma of the placenta, all authors describe a peculiar placental alteration, characterized by the production of more or less pedunciated vesicles, and sometimes forming a very considerable mass. • Madame Boivin distinguishes four kinds of moles: 1st. The red, fleshy, and vascular mole, due to abnormality of the sanguineous system of the embryo. 2d. The white, hydatid or vesicular mole, due to lesions of the membranous shell of the egg. 3d. The complex, fleshy and vesicular mole,
due to lesions of both portions. 4th. The embryonal mole, composed of an embryo and a mole, due to the partial degeneration of one germ, and the complete degeneration of another.
Madame Boivin insists that the vesicular mole is always the product of sexual intercourse, and states in proof thereof, that its enveloping mem brane is entirely analogous to the epichorion or decidua. This enveloping membrane is sometimes expelled entire with its hydatid contents, and it is, like the decidua, the bond of communication between the body which it encloses and the matrix to which it adheres.
If the decidua is adherent, it may not be expelled with the vesicular mass; it may putrefy and exfoliate and gradually break down and flow away, exactly as occurs after ordinary delivery.