An important deduction is that whilst the placenta is frequently and seriously affected in syphilis, it is also the special seat for the accumulation of mercury.

May this not explain its therapeutic action in this disease?
The marked accumulation of lead in the central nervous system of the fetus explains the frequency and serious character of saturnine encephalopathic lesions.

The presence of arsenic in the fetal skin alone gives an explanation of the therapeutic results of the administration of this substance in skin diseases.
Intrauterine amputations are of interest to the medical man, particularly those cases in which the accident has happened in early pregnancy and the child is born with a very satisfactory and clean stump.

Montgomery, in an excellent paper, advances the theory, which is very plausible, that intrauterine amputations are caused by contraction of bands or membranes of organized lymph encircling the limb and producing amputation by the same process of disjunctive atrophy that the surgeons induce by ligature.

Weinlechner speaks of a case in which a man devoid of all four extremities was exhibited before the Vienna Medical Society.