B. STRUCTURAL CIIAN(iKS PR(IDUCEI) L\ THE POISON 

 (ILAM) KY LVJECTIOX OF PILOCARPINE. 



By Henry Fox. 

 (With the cotlnhoraiinn of Iao Lncb.) 



Ill Older to stLul.> the difiVifnt stages of activity of the i)oison gland of 

 Heloderma under various conditions, t\w animals wore injected subcutaneously 

 with pilocarpine. The general effects of the pilocarpine were strikingly similar 

 to those described in the case of salivary glands. (See Cohoe, Jour, of Anat., 

 vol. VI.) 



EXPEKIMEXT I. 



An animal (No. 1) was for the first time injected with 0.1 grain of pilocar- 

 ])ine. Immediately before the injection a i)ortion of the ])oison gland was 

 removed and fixed in Ko)jsch fluid to s(>rve as a control. The animal was then 

 injected and three pieces of the gland were removeil at intervals of ]."). .35, and 

 50 minutes, res])ectively. 



(1a) (iL.\ND Removed Pheviocs to the Injection. 



This was found upon microscopic examination to be entirely normal. 

 Numerous granules were observed crowding the cells of the intralobular tubule, 

 the undifferentiated cytoplasm being limited to an extremely thin layer at the 

 base of the cells. A copious granular secretion was found in the lumina of the 

 tubules, but it is doubtful if this condition is normal — it may have been forced 

 out of the cells into the tubules as a result of the handling consequent upon the 

 removal of the gland. 



(1b) Ol.^nd Re.moved 1.^) Minutes aftek Injectio.n of Pilocakpine. 



Sections showed most of the intralobular duct cells devoid of granules, 

 though a moderate number retained a few. As a rule the cells presented the 

 usual character.'of stimulated gland-cells, being quite or almost free of granules 

 and with large', clear vacuoles inclosed in the meshes of the cytoplasmic retic- 

 ulum. Within the tubules the amount of secretion visiljle was (<xtremely small, 

 in marked contrast to the quantity observed in the normal gland. If the latter 

 condition was normal, one evident effect of the stimulation with pilocarpine 

 was a rapid solution of the extruded granules or an expulsion of the secreted 

 material from the gland proper. One remarkable feature of pilocarpine stimu- 

 lation shown in this case is the extreme rapidity of its action as compared with 

 its action on salivary- glands. According to Cohoe, the submaxillarj' gland 

 of a rabbit showed all the granule-cells loaded with granules after 3 hours' 

 stimulation with a dosage of 0.014 gm. per kilo of body-weight of the animal. 



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