1902.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 325 



typhlosole greatly ruptured (figs. 4, B, and Plate XVI, fig. 9). As 

 will be seen from the same figures, the killing fluids act most power- 

 fully on the inturued cells, just where the two streams of fluid, sep- 

 arated by the descending strip of muscle, are somewhat concentrated 

 in their action. Often with sublimate- acetic and other very powerful 

 reagents the upturned cells present horizontal " streams" of coagu- 

 lated substance, which seems to indicate a movement of the cell con- 

 tents toward the outside groove. I mention these artifacts because I 

 was led by them at first to ascribe a special absorbing function to 

 these cells. - 



Fig. 9, Plate XVI, represents albumose granules fixed in tlie course 

 of passing through the cells of the typhlosole. We have then direct 

 evidence that these cells share the functions of the othei*s in the 

 anterior end of the intestine, and confirmation of the view, expressed 

 explicitly by Ide and implicitly by Conklin, that the infolding is 

 for the purpose of increasing the absorbing surface. The quantity 

 of both kinds of granules, however, is small as compared with that 

 found in other cells. Tliis may be due to the fact that in artificially 

 fed animals the intestine was not gorged to the same degree of full- 

 ness which is common in the natural conditions. On the other 

 hand, the fact that liquid food or secretion, or both, are often 

 foimd in the grooves of the typhlosole in such intestines would 

 indicate that these are not so highy specialized in these functions as 

 the others, and Avoukl lend weight to the view expressed by Lere- 

 bouUet that the furrows provide a means for the more ready passage 

 of the secretion to the middle of the intestine, insuring thereby a 

 more uniform mixture of the food and secretion. The direct evi- 

 dence (exhibited in Table I) that the secretion is being poured into 

 the intestine as long as forty-eight hours after feeding, and the facts, 

 further: that under natural conditions the anterior end is often 

 clogged up with bits of dry food ; that in a freshly dissected animal 

 whose intestine is full, the inner grooves are seen to stand up above 

 the surface of the remainder of the intestinal wall, as if filled with 

 something — plainly not solid food; that the character of the food, 

 consisting as it does of substances often very difficult of penetration 

 by the digestive fluids, requires the most thorough distribution of the 

 secretion (which could scarcely be insured at the time of entering 

 the intestine) ; and, finally, that the form of the typhlosole, narrow 

 in front and widening behind, so that the grooves may permit the 



