So that at this stage we have the embryo representing a mass of cells which have gradually arranged themselves, and been arranged, in the form of a tube more or less bent, and attached near its hinder end to the tissues which are afterwards to represent the umbilical cord.
We have neglected to describe the organs and structures which are developed after fertilisation as a further means of protecting the developing embryo. We have done this of set purpose, because these structures--known as the "trophoblast"--require a considerable amount of technical knowledge to understand. Any detailed description of them, therefore, would be out of place here. All that is necessary for us to say is that they are intended to serve as a means of nutrition for the developing embryo, and take no part in the actual formation of its cells and organs. One portion of it, however, has another function which may be mentioned. It secretes, it is supposed, a kind of ferment which has the power of dissolving or digesting other cells, and this is of great importance at one stage of development--namely, when the fertilised ovum comes to reach the womb, or uterus, in which it is to pass the rest of its developing stage. It is believed that some of the cells in the wall of the uterus are dissolved and digested immediately round the ovum itself, which thus comes to lie in a cavity in the uterine wall. This process being carried still further allows the ovum to sink deeper and deeper into the lining membrane of the uterus. Ultimately the point of entrance, where the cells were digested, is closed up by the formation of a clot of blood poured out at that spot, and which thus entirely covers in the ovum. The latter now comes to lie absolutely embedded in the wall of the uterus in a cavity which it has itself formed. It does not, however, occupy the whole of the cavity, but is surrounded by blood which is escaping from the minute blood-vessels of the wall in which the cavity has been made. This blood is, of course, the maternal blood. "Thus we have the ovum completely embedded, lying free in a tiny cavity in the mucous membrane lining the uterus--a cavity full of blood, in which the ovum lies bathed, and from which it presumably absorbs nourishment by osmosis through its trophoblast." (R. W. Johnstone.)