the cavity may also enlarge and contain a _polypus_, which is a very common disease at middle or advanced age; it has been defined “a diseased mass, which adheres to some part of the cavity of the uterus, by a kind of neck, or narrower portion.” An attempt was made on the trial of _Charles Angus_ to explain the appearance presented by the uterus of _Miss Burns_, upon the supposition of an _hydatid_ having been recently ejected from it, (_see vol._ i, _p._ 254.) Water has been known to have accumulated in very considerable quantities in the cavity of the uterus,[38] in some cases to the amount of fifty, sixty, or even a hundred pints. If a woman die from hemorrhage, or from any other cause in child-birth, the appearances that will present themselves on dissection have been thus clearly described by _Professor Burns_.[39] “The uterus is found like a large flattened pouch, from nine to twelve inches long; the cavity contains coagula, or a bloody fluid, and its surface is covered by the remains of the decidua. Often the marks of the attachment of the _placenta_ are very visible. This part is of a dark colour; so that the uterus is thought to be gangrenous by those who are not aware of the circumstance. The surface being cleaned, the sound substance of the womb is seen; the vessels are extremely large and numerous; the fallopian tubes, round ligaments, and surface of the ovaria, are so vascular that they have a purple colour. The spot where the ovum escaped is more vascular than the rest of the ovarian surface. This state of the uterine appendages continues until the womb has returned to its unimpregnated state. A week after delivery, the womb is as large as two fists; at the end of a fortnight, it will be found about six inches long, generally lying obliquely to one side; the inner surface is still bloody, and covered partially with a pulpy substance like decidua. The muscularity is distinct, and the orbicular direction of the fibres round the orifice of the tubes very evident. The substance is whitish. The intestines have not yet assumed the same order as usual; but the distended cæcum is often more prominent than the rest. It is a month, at least, before the uterus returns to its natural state, but the os uteri rarely, if ever, closes to the same degree as in the virgin state.”