The ovum, enclosed by the zona radiata, passes into the Fallopian tube and undergoes a segmentation which has not been studied with great detail. On the close of segmentation, about six days after impregnation, it assumes (Hensen) a vesicular form not unlike that of other Mammalia. To the inner side of one wall of this vesicle is attached a mass of granular cells similar to the hypoblastic mass in the blastodermic vesicle of the rabbit. The egg still lies freely in the uterus, and is invested by its zona radiata. The changes which next take place are in spite of Bischoff's, Reichert's (No. 188) and Hensen's observations still involved in great obscurity. It is certain, however, that during the course of the seventh day a ring-like thickening of the uterine mucous membrane, on the free side of the uterus, gives rise to a kind of diverticulum of the uterine cavity, in which the ovum becomes lodged. Opposite the diverticulum the mucous membrane of the mesometric side of the uterus also becomes thickened, and this thickening very soon (shortly after the seventh day) unites with the wall of the diverticulum, and completely shuts off the ovum in a closed capsule. The history of the ovum during the earlier period of its inclusion in the diverticulum of the uterine wall is not satisfactorily elucidated. There appears in the diverticulum during the eighth and succeeding days a cylindrical body, one end of which is attached to the uterine walls at the mouth of the diverticulum. The opposite end of the cylinder is free, and contains a solid body. With reference to the nature of this cylinder two views have been put forward. Reichert and Hensen regard it as an outgrowth of the uterine wall, while the body within its free apex is regarded as the ovum. Bischoff and Schäfer maintain that the cylinder itself is the ovum attached to the uterine wall. The observations of the latter authors, and especially those of Schäfer, appear to me to speak for the correctness of their view[94]. [94] Schäfer's and Hensen's statements are in more or less direct contradiction as to the structure of the ovum after the formation of the embryo; and it is not possible to decide between the two views about the ovum till these points of difference have been cleared up. The cylinder gradually elongates up to the twelfth day. Before this period it becomes attached by its base to the mesometric thickening of the uterus, and enters into vascular connection with it. During its elongation it becomes hollow, and is filled with a fluid not coagulable in alcohol, while the body within its apex remains unaltered till the tenth day. [FIG. 162. DIAGRAMMATIC LONGITUDINAL SECTION THROUGH THE EMBRYO OF A GUINEA-PIG WITH ITS MEMBRANES. (After Schäfer.)