26 



Microscopy of Milk in General. 



These cells are the large colostral bodies. They are in their 

 entire structure and in their staining characteristic epithelial cells 

 and not leucocytes ; the amoeboid movements observed in them, if 

 these observations were beyond questioning, do not prove that all 

 colostral bodies represent leucocytes. 



This point will be again taken up during the discussion of colos- 

 trum. While such cells only appear occasionally in ripe milk they 

 are extremely numerous at the beginning and termination of secre- 

 tion, and in pathological processes, in the latter especially in sub- 

 acute and chronic forms, but not in peracute and acute inflammatory 



conditions of the paren- 

 chyma. Such cells may 

 occasionally be noted 

 collected in groups. 



The author believes 

 that their appearance in 

 masses in the milk, that 

 is, the condition increas- 

 ing the expulsion of 

 these epithelia, results 

 from the fact that each 

 cell, which in its singu- 

 lar activity precedes or 

 follows the other cells 

 of the union, becomes 

 desquamated. It does 

 not correspond func- 

 tionally, with the other 

 cells, and is therefore 

 removed from the rows 

 of cells which are de- 

 veloping for a definite 

 purpose or are working 

 for that purpose. Only 

 when uniform work is 

 performed by all of the 

 cells working in unison, 

 . and bringing about a 



uniform condition, will the organ cease to free itself of incapable 

 elements. In inflammation the inflammatory irritation and its 

 consequences soon drive the cells to overproduction. At other 

 times it paralyses or destroys them, even before the formation 

 m?' 5 epending on t he d . ur ation of the inflammation. 

 Ihe form of the epithelium varies in accordance with the con- 

 tent ot fat The collection of fat is not the result of fatty degenera- 

 tion, but is produced when the cell is thrown off before its time for 

 secretion, or while still capable of taking up material and produc- 

 ing tat but without strength for the separation of fat. Therefore 



Cells from the lining membrane of the wall of the cistern 

 Sediment in catarrh of the cistern. Thionin. 1 X 1000. ' 



