NINETEENTH ORDINARY MEETING. Hikes 
In the mid-gut and end-gut the epithelium is ciliated, the size of 
the cilia differing greatly, sometimes being so delicate as to resemble 
the exceedingly fine protoplasmic processes of the same cells in 
higher vertebrates. Epithelial insinkings and tubules, to which one 
can with difficulty attribute a glandular function, are present in 
large numbers in both sections. The epithelium forming them is 
ciliated, and contains a number of beaker cells. These tubules are 
undoubtedly the homologues of the Lieberktihnian glands in higher 
vertebrates. 
In Acipenser, tubules are present in the mucous membrane of the 
spiral valve, which ave distinguished from those of the neighboring 
wall of the intestine, in that they are longer and slenderer than 
those, the cilia of the cells forming them being shorter and more 
delicate, while beaker cells are wholly absent, but abundantly present 
in the tubules of the usual kind. Such structures are not very 
numerous, and it may be that a study of fresh material may, show 
them to be not materially different from the others. In this genus 
also the epithelium of the spiral valve is very strongly ciliated, and 
its shallow crypts are abundantly supplied with beaker cells. 
One important point in connection with the histology of the 
spiral valve in Acipenser has yet to be noticed. Usually the valve 
is thick, and a cross section of it shows to what the greater part of 
this thickness is due: lymph follicles, often over a dozen in number 
in a single vertical section. Hyrtl described a large lymph organ 
as forming the greater part of the thickness of the valve in Ac/penser 
ruthenus, and Ayers has found something similar in this species and 
in Lepidosiren. These follicles in Acipenser rubicundus are, in all 
probability, the homologues of Peyer’s patches which are therefore, 
so far as is yet known, confined in fishes to Acipenser and Lepidosiren. 
Tn Amia the epithelium of the mucous membrane is ciliated from 
the pharynx to the vent. Cilia are present in the same extent in 
Acipenser and Lepidosteus, except in the stomach. 
The pyloric appendage in Acipenser and Lepidosteus is lined on its 
inner surface by epithelium, resembling in every respect that of the 
mid-gut, and completely lacking a glandular character. These 
appendages, in some other fishes, have been found to secrete pepsin, 
trypsin, and diastase. This is not the case in Acipenser ; no enzymes 
were found when proper precautions were taken to remove the 
mucus and food matter, which usually gains an entrance by the 
