Abstract
The following thesis embodies the results
of investigations conducted over a period of aboi.it
one year and a half. A great part of the work was
carried out in the Royal College of Physicians Laboratory,
Edinburgh.
The investigations originated in the discovery
of a distinct resemblance between the modes of
production of the oedematous and haemorrhsgic infiltration
of the tissues in the menstruating uterine
mucosa and in the wall of the pregnant Fallopian
Tube. This discovery led, on the one hand, to a
study of the structure of the uterine mucous membrane,
and, on the other hand, to an extension of the investigations
on the mode of action of the foetal
elements. By this means I hoped to arrive at an explanation
of the menstrual changes and of the alterations
which the mucosa exhibits during pregnancy.
That this hope has been realised I shall endeavour
to prove in the course of the thesis.