Graphic illustrations of abortion and the diseases of menstruation / Consisting of Twelve Plates from Drawings Engraved on Stone, and Coloured by Mr. J. Perry, and Two Copper-plates from the Philosophical Transactions, Coloured by the Same Artist. the Whole Representing Forty-five Specimens of Aborted Ova and Adventitious Productions of the Uterus, With Preliminary Observations, Explanations of the Figures and Remarks, Anatomical and Physiological.

by A. B. Granville

Fig. 21. Ovum pene-solidum; placenta sarcomatosa cum tuberculis hœmatosis; involucra fœtûs solidificata.

(Gestation four months and a half?)

What havoc has disease effected in this Ovum! Scarcely can we recognize a single element of its structure. The placental covering is composed of many substances, has lost its spongy vascularity—it has acquired several solid tumours, and is altogether unfit for its intended function. The cortex of the Ovum is fleshy; but within it a supernumerary fine membrane is seen, which might, but must not, be mistaken for the chorion. The latter involucrum, and the rest of the membranes within it, have become compact, they adhere together, and form a solid whole, which has scarcely the appearance of what it is—a human Ovum.

It is said to have been aborted in the fifth month of pregnancy; yet the embryo that can lodge within so narrow a chamber can scarcely have more than a few weeks’ growth. It is in Sir Charles Clarke’s collection, and I am indebted to Mr. Stone for permission to have it drawn by Mr. Perry, with three or four more specimens contained in the present publication.

On the right of the drawing, the real extent of the thickening of the external covering is not sufficiently denoted. There are in the substance of