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digestion. In this condition the capital cells were found to 
be swollen and more granular than in preparations taken from 
a fasting animal, and to be coloured ina very striking manner 
by aniline blue. The investing cells are comparatively little 
altered, but the cavity of the gland becomes fitted with 
yellowish or brown granular matter. Nothing was seen 
which proved that the cells divide or multiply during diges- 
tion. 
The memoir of Ebstein is an interesting supplement to 
that of Heidenhain. He has studied the glands found 
especially at the pyloric end of the stomach, discovered by 
Wasmann, and called “ gastric mucous glands,” which have 
been thought to secrete only acid or mucus, and to have 
nothing to do with the production of pepsin. They occur in 
groups at the bottom of the “‘ mucous crypts” of this part of 
the stomach, and in their general form resemble the peptic 
glands. The follicles themselves are lined by a cylindrical 
epithelium ; the cells of which are, however, smaller, more 
granular, and in other respects different from the epithelium 
of the mucous surface. These cells have, moreover, a striking 
resemblance to the “ capital” cells of Heidenhain, from the 
peptic-glands, both in form andinchemical properties. Further- 
more, they are affected in the same manner in digestion ; they 
become granular, and are coloured by aniline blue; points 
which are thought to show that they become more albuminous. 
They do not, however, enlarge, but become smaller, apparently 
because they give exit to a quantity of albuminous matter 
which fills the excretory part of the gland, and is remarkably 
tinted by the aniline blue. The conclusion indicated by these 
results, that these glands might equally with the “ peptic ” 
glands be concerned in the production of pepsin, was con- 
firmed by actual experiment. Fluid obtained from these 
glands was found, when acidified, to have the same solvent 
action on fibrin and albumen as the secretion of the “peptic” 
glands. ‘The inference would be that the power of producing 
pepsin resides.in the structures common to both classes of 
glands, namely, in those cells which are called “ capital ” cells 
in the peptic glands, and form the normal epithelial lining in 
the mucous glands. The function of the “investing ”’ cells 
or peptic cells of authors become obscure. 
Liver.—Dr. Lionel Beale, in his ‘ Archives of Medicine’ 
(No. 17, vol. v, p. 71), takes up again the question of the 
“minute anatomy of the liver,” especially as to the relation 
of the liver-cells to the minute bile ducts. The result of 
numerous researches and experiments made since the publica- 
tion of his former paper in 1856 has not led him in any degree 
