TUMORS OF THE PLACENTA.
The following is the description, by A. Danyan, of a tumor occurring in a healthy woman, and after a normal pregnancy, the only effect of the mass being to cause considerable abdominal distension, so that labor oc curred at the seventh month. " Near the margin of the fcetal portion of the placenta, is an oval tumor 41 inches long by 31 inches broad, and covered by the membranes, which are partly detached from its surface. Several large venous and arterial branches of the umbilical vessels ruEi over its surface and penetrate its substance to the centre. The tumor is lobulated, and, besides the membranes, has a proper envelope, thin super ficially, thicker over the portion covered by placenta, easily torn, and ap parently formed of plastic lymph more or less condensed. Divided longi tudinally, the tumor appears to be composed of intimately adherent lobes, some being of a dead white, and others of a pale or deep rose tint; ita tissue is homogeneous, very dry, like schirrhus in appearance, and crying under the scalpel; its color and consistence reminding one in some pla,ces of the cortical substance of the kidney, and appearing in others to be com posed of layers of fibrin; vascular orifices are apparent, some of which are still filled with clots."
The author describes a second similar but smaller tumor, and adds, that the portion of the placenta upon which they rest is depressed; that the tumors can be nucleated; that the placental tissue is then very com pact, and that a neighboring cotyledon contained a blood clot about the size of a filbert. The second tumor was observed under circumgane,es similar to the rest; it differed only by a greater homogeneity of the tis sue out of which it was formed, and by the absence of the layer of plastic lymph which almost entirely covered the first one.
The author then discusses the nature of these tumors, whether they are monstrosities or moles, or perhaps due to degeneration of the decidua, or whether of cancerous nature. Danyau comes to what appears t,o us the well-founded conclusion, that they are due to anterior sanguineous effusions. In conclusion, he states that the tumors appeared to have no evil influence upon either pregnancy, delivery or the puerperal state, and that they cannot, at present, be diagnosticated before birth.