R. R. Bensley _ 119 
the strength of the solution were increased, the gastric epithelium 
stained. With Mayer’s undiluted stock solution of mucicarmine, we find 
in addition the pyloric glands and duodenal glands stained. ‘Thin sec- 
tions from which the imbedding mass has been removed and which are 
allowed to float freely in the solution will give positive results with 
much less concentrated solutions than sections in celloidin, or sections 
attached to the slide. For example, I obtained positive results in the 
pyloric gland cells of the cat and in the neck chief cells of the fundus 
glands of the same animal, by simply transferring thin sections, cut 
after imbedding in paraffin, from alcohol to the diluted solutions recom- 
mended by Mayer. 
If the undiluted mucicarmine solution of Mayer or the muchematein 
solution of fivefold strength be employed, positive results may be ob- 
tained with perfect certainty in the glandular cells of the pyloric glands, 
the duodenal glands of Brunner, the cardiac glands, and in the neck 
chief cells of the fundus glands of a great many mammals. Material 
fixed in alcohol or in bichromate sublimate has yielded the best results 
in my hands, but other fixing agents do not materially alter the char- 
acter of the reaction. Sections cut in celloidin stain perfectly in the 
above solutions, although the time of staining with muchematein must 
not be too prolonged or the celloidin mass will take the stain. With 
mucicarmine, the celloidin stains somewhat, but in the tissues the color 
is entirely confined to the secretory contents of the cells. 
In cardiac glands so treated, the inner portion of the cell, which re- 
mains unstained in sections stained by other methods, is deeply colored 
blue or red according to whether muchzematein or mucicarmine is em- 
ployed. The protoplasm of the cells and the nuclei remain unstained. 
Schaffer’s failure to obtain this reaction was probably simply due to the 
fact that his solutions were too dilute or that he did not take advantage 
of the greater rapidity of action of the dilute stains on sections unat- 
tached to the slide and free from any imbedding mass. 
There can be very little doubt that the cardiac gland cells of man 
are muciparous structures. Their relation to the cells of the surface, 
the staining reactions which I have observed, the compression phe- 
nomena observed in the nuclei in the completely filled cell, and the 
absence from them of zymogen granules and prozymogen (with certain 
exceptions to which I shall refer presently) all clearly point to this. I 
should hesitate to assert, however, that this is the only kind of activity 
in which the cardiac gland cell is engaged although, indeed, it is the 
most conspicuous and impresses itself most clearly on the structure of 
the cell. 
