208 SPECIAL HISTOLOGY. 



of larger, opaque, colourless or yellow granules, nuclei and 

 cells, similar to the epithelial cells above described. That these 

 contents, which, as I have found, contain much protein and fat, 

 differ considerably from the common sweat, which is fluid and 

 presents no formed elements, and probably rather approximate 

 to the sebaceous secretion of the skin, is evident, on which 

 account we might be induced to remove the glands of the 

 axilla from the class of sudoriparous glands, and to regard their 

 secretion as of a peculiar kind. These glands, however, some- 

 times afford a secretion containing but few granules, or even 

 nothing but fluid ; and among the larger axillary glands 

 smaller ones occur, which, so far as regards their contents, 

 exhibit many transitions, on the one hand into the large, and 

 on the other into common small glands. If we further con- 

 sider that, occasionally, the sudoriparous glands in other 

 situations, as, for instance, in the areola of the nipple, contain 

 a fluid abounding in granules, it is clear that it is unadvisable 

 to distinguish the large axillary glands from the common 

 kind, on account of the difference in their secretion ; and the 

 more so, indeed, because we by no means know whether 

 the latter, under certain circumstances, may not contain 

 granules. 



As respects the origin of the granular contents, they must be 

 referred to the cells which are developed in the glandular tubes. 

 For we frequently meet in these with cells containing the same 

 granules, which also occur free within the glandular canals; 

 and frequently may fee said to constitute their whole con- 

 tents. It sometimes happens, also, that in one and the same 

 gland the ends of the glandular tubes contain nothing but cells, 

 while the excretory duct exhibits hardly any trace of them, 

 presenting merely granules and scattered free nuclei; and in 

 this case we can easily see that the cells, as they pass further 

 upwards, become broken up to a greater and greater extent, 

 thus setting free their nuclei and the granules in their interior. 

 These cells plainly proceed from the epithelial cells lining the 

 canal of the sudoriparous coil; for, in the first place, the cells 

 of the contents and the epithelium resemble one another in all 

 respects ; and secondly, where cellular or granular contents are 

 found in the glands themselves, the epithelium is for the most 

 part completely absent, so that the former rests immediately 



