86 SPECIAL HISTOLOGY. 



in the pyloric region, around the apertures of the tubular 

 or gastric glands, little reticulated folds or even isolated villi 

 {plicae villosa, Krause) of 0*024 — 0-048'" or even 0-1'" (^ — £'" 

 Krause). Not ^infrequently, also, the mucous membrane 

 is marked out, especially upon the right side, by little shallow 

 depressions, into slightly raised polygonal arese of \ — 2'", 

 the so-called ' etat mamelonne ' of pathologists, which, how- 

 ever, is also exhibited by perfectly healthy stomachs. The 

 mucous membrane is thinnest {\ — i), at the cardia, in the 

 middle it becomes thickened to \"' ', and in the pyloric region 

 to | or 1'", which depends entirely upon the glandular layer, 

 since the epithelium and muscular layer everywhere possess the 

 same thickness. The submucous tissue is abundant and, as 

 throughout the whole intestine, contains occasional fat-cells. 



§ 150. 



The gastric glands. — The gastric glands — the most im- 

 portant part of the raucous membrane — are tubular glands 

 which, set close together, pass straight through the entire 

 thickness of the mucous membrane to its muscular layer, and 

 therefore vary, in the different regions of the stomach, from 

 J to |"', or even 1"', but are on the average J'" in length. 

 Each of them commences as a cylindrical tube, of 0*03 — 004'" 

 diameter, at the surface of the mucous membrane, diminishes 

 inferiorly to as little as 0*014 — 002'", and terminates by a 

 clavate or flask-shaped enlargement of 0*02 — 0*026 — 0*036'". 

 The lower third of the glands is usually nndulated or even 

 twisted into a corkscrew shape, especially at the pylorus; occa- 

 sionally it gives off a shorter or longer crecal branch before its 

 termination. Every gastric gland is surrounded by a delicate 

 membrana propria and possesses in its upper third, a cylindrical 

 epithelium continuous with that of the surface of the stomach ; 

 for the inferior three fourths of its extent, on the other hand, 

 it presents pale, finely granular, polygonal nucleated cells of 

 0006 — 0*01'", which probably never constitute a distinct epi- 

 thelium, but appear completely to fill the tubes. 



[In animals, the gastric glands are more complicated than 

 in man, frequently presenting dichotomous divisions and sub- 

 divisions of their free ends ; in many genera, they are of two 



