208 FRANKLIN PARADISE JOHNSON 



becomes greatly reduced. In other words, where a considerable 

 amount of meconium is found in the intestine, the thickness 

 of its mucosa varies indirectly with the amount of distension. 



Since the perimeters of the two colons under discussion were 

 unequal in length, it is of interest to compare the number of 

 glands present in them. This was done by counting the num- 

 ber of glands which were practically in contact with the develop- 

 ing muscularis mucosae. This method would not have given 

 comparable results had not the thickness of the sections in both 

 cases been the same (8 microns). In the distended intestine 

 variations from 79 to 96 and an average of 86 were obtained; 

 in the non-distended piece, a variation from 81 to 91 and an 

 average of 85.2, showing that the number of glands is approxi- 

 mately the same. Whether the number of villi around the 

 intestinal wall is the same in both of the intestines, is a harder 

 problem to determine, owing to their greater size and irregu- 

 larity in height, and to the fact that one is given no distinct 

 basal line, as in the case of the glands, from which to measure. 

 Such a problem could only be determined with any degree of 

 accuracy by making a number of models of comparatively large 

 areas. However, from cross sections alone, it is possible to 

 make out that in the distended intestine the villi are further 

 apart. 



In the spreading or stretching out of the mucosa, both the 

 villi and glands become reduced in length and broadened. The 

 following measurements have been made to show this: 



It must be noted that the villi had in many places practically 

 disappeared. 



The outer layers of the intestine are also reduced in thickness 

 by distension, a fact which is of common observance in the 

 digestive tube of the adult. In the non-distended transverse 



