366 



C. M. Child 



appears within the intestine. As degeneration of the branches 

 proceeds a fluid crowded with dark granular masses appears in 

 the intestine and may accumulate and distend the remaining parts 

 of the intestme in pieces of certain sorts to be described in 

 another section. In normal animals, however, this substance 

 never accumulates to any great extent but undergoes resorption 

 almost as rapidly as it is formed and undoubtedly serves as nutri- 

 tive material for other organs which are still functional. 



As reduction continues the lateral bands become less conspicu- 

 ous, the dark color gradually fading out as they undergo resorp- 

 tion, and the lateral branches undergo further reduction until 

 their tips no longer extend to the region occupied by the lateral 

 bands. At this stage the intestine appears as in Fig. 4 or as in 

 the regions a short distance anterior and posterior to the pharynx 

 in Fig. 6. Somewhat later still the lateral bands disappear entirely 



r; 



2 3 



^ 5 



Figs. 2, 3, 4 and 5 



or break up into parts which sooner or later disappear. Various 

 stages in the disappearance of the lateral bands are shown in Fig. 

 6. And finally, intestinal reduction may proceed so far that only 

 the axial intestine remains (Fig. 5). In some cases, as in this 

 figure, the intestine still shows slight indications of the positions 

 of the former branches, but often even these disappear and abso- 

 lutely no trace or indication of branches can be discovered (Fig. 

 19). Often, as in Fig. 5, the lateral branches disappear before 

 the last traces of the lateral bands, which may persist for a time 

 as isolated groups of granules, presumably occupying the paren- 

 chymal spaces originally filled by the ends of the lateral intestinal 

 branches. 



The next stage is of course complete disappearance of the intes- 

 tine from the regions concerned. This stage is attained only in 

 the terminal regions of the normal body and of pieces under cer- 

 tain conditions. In Fig. 6 the intestine has disappeared almost 



