( 31 ) 



line the inueous iiieiul)raiie seem lo poiiil lo seerelioii of niuciis 

 more particularly than to resorption. The faet is that their peripliei-ai 

 portion readily undergoes a radical clian<ie, whcrc^hy il swells and 

 is expelled as a lump of gastric mncns. Uidess the utmost sjieed 

 presides al the lixation of the gastric mucous memhrane tVom anv 

 animal, the epithelium cells, Avhich ai-e still living hnl insidïicienlh 

 fed, undergo intense changes when coming in contact with ihc l»\ 

 jio means indifferent gastric jnice. Until lately the epilhelinm cells 

 of the stomach were thought by many to be o[)en nnuMis cells, a 

 kind of cylindrical goblet cells, because the above mentioned peripheral 

 l)ar(, the so called "Lump of Uikukhmann" ') had disa[)p('ar('d and 

 only the cell-walls, which were more resistant, were left. 



Improved means of fixation and cliiefh also the fact that histologisis 

 have gradually been brought to see the necessity of a speed v lixation 

 of })erfectly fresh material, have been the cause that at least the open 

 epithelium cell of the stomach has been acknowledged to be an artefact 

 and it has been generally adopted that those cells are closed al 

 their peripheral extremity by a smooth, convex l)oundary layer '^). 



Starting from the supposition that microscopical investigation might 

 bring to light something about the resorlung (jualities, when the 

 ])erfectly fresh gastric mucous meml)rane, is treated \erv rapidlx' 

 with favorable means of fixation, a few young mannnals and also 

 older ones, \vhich received milk along Avitli their food, were killed 

 by a single stroke on the head and the stomach was extracted 

 without delay, turned inside out and immediately immersed into 

 Fle.mming's well-known mixture of Y^ P^'^- cdiromic acid, 5 pCt. 

 acetic acid and Ys P^^- osmiumtetroxid. White i-ats and mice (full 

 grown), a rabbit of 3, one of J 5 days and one rabbil of 24 days 

 nourished with milk, were taken for the experiments. 



It now become evident that a comparatively small nnmber of the 

 epithelinm-cells of the surfjice of the stomach contained suk/// drops 

 of fat: at least fine globules, which were coloi'cd black with OsO^ 

 and agreed perfectly in size and appearance \a itli those, w hicli w(M'e 

 visible in great nund)ers in the gastric contents, which had stuck 

 to the mucous mend)rane in dilferent places of the section. The 

 surface of such gastric cells was not smooth either, but covered 

 with a differentiation which resembled the striated border of the 

 fatresorbing ej)ithelium-cells of the intestine. 



1) W. BiEDERMANN. Sitzungsfjciiclitt.' der Wiener Ak d. d. W'iss. Malliein. nalurw. 

 Klasse. 7 f Bd. S. 377. 1875. 



2 iv_ \v. ZiMMEHMANN. Beilriige zur Kenntniss einiger Driisen iind Kpitliclien. 



Arch. f. mikiosk. Anatomie. Bd. Tjii. I8i)8. S. 5.V2. 



