CHANGES IN PANCREAS, PHOSPHORUS POISONING 247 



acid fuchsiii-nietliyl green preparations after neutral formalin- 

 bichromate fixation. In the li\'inp; cell the distinction is easy, 

 too, by reason of the relatively high refractive index of the zymo- 

 gen. These secretion granules are in no discoverable way differ- 

 ent from those in the normal cell. They stain specifically with 

 neutral gentian, and their size and form is unchanged. There 

 are no droplets of lipoid and no agglutinated masses of mito- 

 chondria in these cells. The only possible interpretation of this 

 condition is that it be either a retention of secretion or else an 

 excessive formation of it. Curiously enough such cells packed 

 with secretion and exhibiting mitochondrial changes of only the 

 first stage are found near cells containing the large lipoid drop- 

 lets and very few, if any, zymogen granules. Cells of this 

 ^•ariety are really quite numerous. They frequently occur 

 together in acini but they may also be seen in acini with other 

 cells which show the typical lipoid droplets, and scarcely any 

 zymogen granules. The reason for changes seemingly so opposite 

 in nature occurring in neighboring cells is not at all apparent. 

 It is true, how^ever, that the reaction of individual cells to the 

 poisoning in the other types of change varied greatly in degree. 

 It may be that this heaping up of secretion in the cell is merely 

 an eA'idence of an altered metabolism, possibly an abnormal 

 stimulation, in these cells showing the least evidence of damage. 

 This type of cell, whatever be its cause, emphasizes the fact that 

 whenever the poisoning has affected a change in another con- 

 stituent of the cell the mitochondria are found to be altered. 



Among the large number of pancreases examined certain of 

 them show^ed intracellular infiltration of hyaline substance in 

 both acinus cells and islet cells, while others contained small 

 areas of necrosis in which the mitochondria had practically dis- 

 appeared. Even some of the control animals presented minute 

 foci of fatty infiltration in the pancreas. 



Other tissues of the animals poisoned with phosphorus were 

 examined as a check upon the changes in the pancreas. The 

 alterations are of course most pronounced in the liver and my 

 findings in this organ are in a measure confirmatory of the ob- 

 servations of Mayer, Rathery and Schaeffer ('14, p. 608), but I 



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