598 A. M. REESE 



The entire thickness of the wall is made up of a compact mass 

 of cells that do not show a very great amount of variation in 

 different regions of the section. The cells adjacent to the 

 capsule are perhaps, on the average, somewhat larger than 

 those nearer the midregion of the section, while the cells ad- 

 jacent to the lumen of the gland are distinctly larger than the 

 other cells. 



The nuclei of the cells vary largely in size, and many of them, 

 particularly in cells nearer the lumen, show distinctly angular out- 

 lines, as though they were somewhat shrunken. Many of the cells 

 bordering the lumen are without nuclei, and gradually become more 

 irregular and shrunken as the lumen is approached, until they may 

 become continuous with the irregular mass of secretion in the 

 lumen, lu. 



The secretion of this gland, as noted above, is a yellowish or 

 brownish, oily mass with a musky odor. Under the micro- 

 scope (fig 43), this yellowish, paste-like mass is seen to consist 

 of isolated granular cells of various sizes, some with distinct 

 nuclei, some with scarcely visible or no nuclei; surrounding the 

 cells are fat droplets of all sizes, probably derived from the broken- 

 down cells whose shrunken and empty walls may be seen in sec- 

 tions that pass through the lumen of the gland. 



SUMMARY 



Three sets of integumental glands are found in the alligator, 

 the dorsal glands, of uncertain function, and two pairs of musk 

 glands. 



The dorsal glands are minute, spherical structures that are 

 found just under the skin in two rows, one row on each side of 

 the middorsal line. They open to the surface through minute 

 pores. They develop as thickenings and invaginations of the 

 lower layer of the epidermis. The wall of the adult gland con- 

 sists of a sort of loose, stratified epithelium, resembling somewhat 

 the structure of the stink gland of the turtle. Since these glands 

 are very small and have, so far as could be determined, no odor, 

 they probably have some other function. 



