AUTHOR’S ABSTRACT OF THIS PAPER ISSUED 
BY THE BIBLIOGRAPHIC SERVICE, MAY l 
THE REACTION OF THE CELLS LINING THE PERI- 
TONEAL CAVITY, INCLUDING THE GERMINAL 
EPITHELIUM OF THE OVARY, TO VITAL DYES 
R. S. CUNNINGHAM 
Department of Anatomy, Johns Hopkins University 
ONE PLATE (EIGHT FIGURES) 
The general trend of the large amount of work carried out on 
the nature and significance of vital staining has been to indicate 
a definite relationship between all the cells which manifest a 
reaction to these dyes in the same way and to the same degree. 
That many observers have been extravagant in regard to the 
various applications of this theory may be admitted, while the 
strict value of the principle is still adhered to. Again it has 
been customary to consider as important only those reactions 
to this group of dyes in which large, or at least moderate amounts 
were stored. All cells having a smaller content were more or 
less huddled together and left unstudied. Yet the careful study 
of the characteristics in those groups of cells where only minor 
amounts of vital dyes are stored may prove of as much interest 
and importance as the elaborate study of those cells in which 
the power to store these substances is very great. This is, I 
think, further suggested in the recent brilliant studies of Evans 
and Scott (’20) on the reactions of clasmatocytes and fibroblasts. 
This work, though directed towards the differentiation of these 
two cell-types in as exact a way as possible, revealed much of 
the reaction of the fibroblasts with different exposures to many 
vital dyes, and it is practically certain that these observations 
will later be of very great value in increasing our knowledge 
of the phases of fibroblastic activity. 
Since the cells lining the peritoneal cavity do not store vital 
dyes in large amounts, they have been among those to which 
but little attention has been paid. But the finding that the 
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