GLAND TISSUE. 



133 



retrogression of the tissue elements in a normal wav here, 

 as by a pathological process elsewhere. The gland cell 

 swells with the increasing embedment of fat, and finally falls 

 from its matrix. Suspended in the cavity of the acinus, it 

 has now become a corpse. We meet, accordingly, in the 



Fig. 123. — A, the vesicle of a sebaceous gland; a, the gland-cells resting on the wall; b. 

 those which have been cast off, containing fat and filling the cavity ; B, the cells more highly mag- 

 nified ; a, smaller ones, poorer in fat and belonging to the wall ; ^.larger ones, more abundantly 

 filled with fat; c, a cell with larger fat drops joined together, and d one with a single drop of fat; 

 e,f, cells whose fat has partially escaped. 



sebum with these cells fatty degenerated to a high degree, 

 with their fragments, their nuclei which have become free, and 

 fat molecules with an albuminous connecting substance. This 

 is the origin of the sebum cutaneum, a relatively unimpor- 

 tant secretion. 



The lacteal gland consists of a group of enlarged sebaceous 

 glands, destined for a higher performance. 

 Even before the final period of pregnancy, 

 the human organ forms the so-called colos- 

 trum. We meet in the latter with globular 

 cellular elements ofo.0151 to 0.0563 mm. in 

 size (Fig. 124, b). 



These " colostrum corpuscles " are simi- 

 lar to the detached, highly fatty, sebaceous 

 follicle cells. Subsequently, soon after the 

 delivery, the milk contains millions of the so- 

 called milk globules (a). They are drops of 

 fat which have become free, and are surrounded by a very 

 thin shell of a coagulated albuminous body, which is usually 



o 



9 O 







,0 



,0 



Fig. 124. — Elemen- 

 tary forms of human 

 milk ; a, milk globule ; 

 b, colostrum corpuscle. 



