Basil C. H. Harvey 229 
83, and Pilliet, 87, has not been confirmed by other observers. Bensley 
has not been able to find it and in my preparations I have found abso- 
lutely no evidence of their transformation into chief cells of either 
variety. Further, while new mucous or ferment cells are being formed, 
the parietal cells of the gland bodies are not diminished in number nor 
are there mitoses among them, so that new chief cells cannot arise from 
them. There remain only the ferment cells from which new mucous 
cells can be derived, and only the mucous cells from which new ferment 
cells can be derived, and so by a process of elimination of every other 
source possible, there is afforded a very strong confirmation of the indi- 
cation that cells of these two varieties are transformed one into the other. 
Stages of the transformation may be actually observed, in which the 
same cell contains both mucus and zymogen. In a preparation of the 
stage of two weeks after the operation I stained a section with neutral 
gentian and selected in it a gland containing cells with only a few 
zymogen granules in them. Between this gland and the line of operation 
all gland bodies contained chief cells which were exclusively mucus- 
forming. A few cells of this gland were drawn showing zymogen 
granules in their free ends. The section was then put in alcohol until 
all the neutral gentian was extracted and then stained in muchexmatein. 
The same cells were then found to contain considerable numbers of 
mucous granules. 
From all these facts it seems necessary to conclude that ferment cells 
may be transformed into mucous cells, and that these same cells may 
later lose their mucus-forming function and reassume the morphological 
characters and function of ferment-forming cells, which they possessed 
before the operation. 
The replacement of ferment cells by mucous cells was observed by 
Cade, oz, who assumed that it was a transformation and interpreted it 
as evidence of the formation of a new pylorus, and he concluded there- 
from that the body chief cells are not specifically set apart for the 
performance of one function, but that they possess a morphological flexi- 
bility and take on a pyloric character when made to perform the part 
of pylorus. In view of the fact that in addition to the alteration of 
function caused by the establishment of the new pylorus, there is 
affecting these cells, also an inflammation produced by the mechanical 
violence of the operation and by the tension which the attachment to 
the duodenum makes upon this area of mucous membrane, it seems to 
me that this explanation is incomplete, since it takes account of only one 
of the two influences which are operating to produce changes in the cells. 
The change might be merely the expression of the cellular reaction to 
