qLANDULAR CELLS OF THE FROG'S PANCREAS 397 



usually spherical in shape, but vary much in size, and especially 

 in structure. Some are without nuclear fragments but full 

 of zymogen granules ; others contain one or more small chromatic 

 corpuscles; in still other cases the nuclear portion, as compared 

 with the plasma portion, is so large that the fragment is almost 

 entirely filled up with it, an appearance of a free nuclear frag- 

 ment being thus produced. These fragmented corpuscles are, 

 sooner or later, taken up by neighboring normal glandular cells. 

 This occurs either simultaneously with the process of fragmenta- 

 tion in such a way that the fragment presses against the neighbor- 

 ing cell so as to lead to the formation of a cavity which, being 

 more and more deepened, finally encloses the fragment (fig. 113), 

 or the fragments formed persist for some time in the intercellular 

 space, causing depressions upon the adjacent cells. The ultimate 

 fate of these corpuscles is the same as in the former case; 

 that is to say, they are all embraced by the surrounding plasma 

 of the normal glandular cells and finally taken up by them 

 (figs. 114, 118). There is no constancy in the position in the 

 cell nor in the size of fragments thus taken up; if they are large, 

 the nucleus is often distorted by their pressure. The frag- 

 ments gradually diminish in volume, partly by repeated frag- 

 mentation, accompanied by simultaneous changes in structure. 

 The nuclear fragments come to stain more and more faintly with 

 chromatin dyes (figs. 115 to 117), or their substance diffuses 

 through the plasma portion, while the zymogen granules seems 

 to fuse together. Thus, corpuscles of various sizes and struc- 

 tures are formed, which vary not only in individual cases, but 

 also according to the stages of degeneration, so that no definite 

 light can be thrown from merely morphological study upon 

 the significance of the corpuscles. They seem to be digested 

 and absorbed by the surrounding cytoplasm, finally leaving 

 there clear vacuoles, which gradually decrease in volume and 

 disappear. 



The mitochondrial filaments in degenerating cells appear at 

 first to be increased in number. In successive periods they 

 thicken and gradually become faintly tinged (fig. 112), and at 

 last disintegrate into granules, while the intracellular network is 



