200 



HISTOLOGY. 



Portion of a parietal cell. 



Parietal cell. 



Chief cell. 



Gland lumen. 



FIG. 224. TRANSVERSE SECTION OP 

 HUMAN GASTRIC GLAND. X 240. 



cells. It may cause the free surface of the cell to bulge, and in preserved 

 itssue to rupture, but this may be due to reagents. The mucous of the gas- 

 tric cells responds less readily to mucin stains than that of the intestinal 



goblet cells. It first appears in granular 

 form. The gastric epithelium lines a 

 great many closely adjacent gastric pits 

 (foveolae) into the bottom of which the 

 glands of the stomach empty. These 

 glands are of three sorts, the gastric 

 glands, cardiac glands, and pyloric glands. 

 None of them extend through the mus- 



cularis mucosaei nto the submucosa. The cardiac glands are limited to 

 the oesophageal end of the stomach, occupying a zone from 5 to 40 mm. 

 wide; the pyloric glands may extend from 6 to 14 cms. from its duodenal 

 end; and the gastric glands occur 

 throughout its body and fundus. Axial lumen - 



The gastric glands [fundus glands, 



,. i , -, . , , ' Parietal cells with 



peptic glands] are straight or somewhat intraceiiuiar se - 



. , . . cretory capillar- 



tortuous tubular glands with narrow ies. 

 lumens, several of which empty into a 

 single gastric pit (Fig. 223). The pits 

 are sometimes considered to be the 

 ducts of the glands. The tubules 

 may join one another before entering a 

 pit, so that they may be described as 

 branched. They are somewhat nar- 

 rowed tOWard the pitS, forming the Intercellular secre- 



u tory capillaries. 



neck of the glands; their slightly ex- 

 panded base is called the fundus. Each 

 tubule consists of cells of two sorts, 

 chief cells, and parietal cells. The 

 chief cells in fresh tissue appear dark 

 and filled with refractive granules; in 

 stained specimens they are clear, cu- 

 boidal or low columnar structures en- 

 closing round nuclei. After death the 

 chief cells rapidly disintegrate. Their 

 granules, which are often destroyed by 

 reagents, are coarse toward the lumen 



and fine in the basal protoplasm. In the absence of food the chief cells 

 enlarge and the granules accumulate, but with prolonged activity the cells 



Chief cells. 



FIG. 225. GOLGI PREPARATION, SHOWING THE 

 SECRETORY CAPILLARIES IN GASTRIC 

 GLANDS. X 230. 



