50 James FRANCIS ABBOTT, 
from one to the other. In these cells the lower part had changed 
over into the third or granular stage, while the distal end retained 
traces of the network (Fig. 33). The eosinophile granules of Stage C 
increase in size and swell the cell to its full capacity, — the result 
being that instead of these granules keeping their original rounded 
shape they become flattened by mutual pressure, like peas in a pod. 
The outer surface of the cell is bulged out until at Jast the pressure 
becomes too great and the cellwall is ruptured, the granules passing 
to the exterior (Fig. 36). The nucleus of these cells is rather large, 
oval, or flattened, basal in position and full of chromatin granules. 
Occasionally cells are found (Fig. 36) of the same shape and general 
appearance as those of Stage B mentioned above, but filled with a 
very fine and delicate network of fibrils and with knots of deeply 
staining protoplasm at the nodes of the reticulum. The cytoplasm 
is granular, and the nuclei are relatively large and not flattened. 
It is possible that the secretion of these cells differs in character 
from that of the ordinary gland cell described above. 
Between the gland cells of the epithelium, and especially sur- 
rounding them at the base is a syncytium of interstitial sup- 
porting substance, full of deeply staining nuclei. In places 
cellwalls may be made out and apparently there is no hard and 
fast line to be drawn between the condition of individual supporting 
cells and that of a true syncytium. Where the gland cells are very 
numerous and close together, as at the periphery, the nuclei of the 
supporting substance are very numerous and cellwalls are not dis- 
cernable. When the gland cells are scattered and relatively less 
numerous and the intercellular tissue correspondingly greater in 
extent, cell outlines may frequently be traced downward from the 
external surface, fading away as they approach the basement mem- 
brane. 
Ventrally the interstitial syncytium passes over into a definite 
cell structure, — the ciliated cells. These are narrow, columnar 
or sometimes flaskshaped, closely appressed. with an oval nucleus 
near the base and a granular cytoplasm. At the distal end are 
knots of deeply staining protoplasm, “microsomes”, from which the 
heavy cilia arise. These cells are larger in the neighborhood of 
the mouth and in the pharynx. Here the microsome is large and 
prominent and the cilia arising from the surface fuse together (in 
fixed preparations at least) into a rather heavy flagellum. Whether 
this is the general condition of the cilia bearing cells over. the 
