438 RAYMOND M. SELLE 
Stage 3. Cornified cells and small epithelial cells 
The characteristic smear for this stage consisted of cornified 
cells, and of nucleated, small, epithelial cells. There are as yet 
no leucocytes found, but as the stage progressed fewer cornified 
cells and increasing numbers of epithelial cells appeared. Some 
of the latter contained granules in the cytoplasm. In case the 
cornified layer had been shed in a cast, this stage lasted only a 
short time during which the epithelial cells were cast off. 
The active shedding of these two kinds of cells reduced the 
height of the stratified epithelium to from four to seven cells. 
This stage was called the cheesy stage by Stockard and Papani- 
colaou, because of the appearance of the mass of epithelial cells. 
Since in this investigation the vagina was regularly washed out 
with warm saline solution in the process of taking samples and 
was thereby kept clean, the cells could not accumulate to form 
such cheesy masses. 
During this stage leucocytosis began in earnest. Leucocytes 
invaded the submucosa and the epithelium, in the latter of which 
it was common to see aggregates of three to ten leucocytes. In 
many cases leucocytes had become imbedded in the epithelial 
cells, as many as five having been counted in a single cell. Corni- 
fied cells had completely disappeared from the smears and did not 
appear again until the next cycle. 
Stage 4. Small epithelial cells and leucocytes 
(Stockard and Papanicolaou’s stage 3) 
This marks the advent of leucocytes in the lumen of the vagina. 
In the previous stage the leucocytes were migrating into the 
vaginal epithelium, but had not yet reached the lumen. Smears 
made during stage 4 contained the nucleated epithelial cells of 
the preceding stage and also increasing numbers of polymor- 
phonuclear leucocytes. At first the epithelial cells predominated, 
but gradually ceased to become detached; while at the same time 
the number of leucocytes rapidly increased until they were in a 
majority. 
At the end of this stage the epithelium was only two to four 
cells high over the finger-like processes of the submucosa (fig. 7). 
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