220 Objects for the Microscope. 



but loose and plaited when contracted. The internal sur- 

 face is somewhat like honeycomb, with shallow cells, at the 

 bottom of which lie the minute orifices of the gastric glands. 

 We. see these glands looking somewhat like villi in the 

 injected preparation, but they are essentially different both 

 in structure and office. These tubular glands produce the 

 cells containing the gastric juice which digests our food. 

 When the stomach is empty they are at rest and the orifice 

 of each is closed, but no sooner does food enter the stomach 

 than the capillaries surrounding each gland become excited, 

 and the glands commence actively secreting an acid fluid, 

 which oozes in minute drops from their open mouths and 

 mixes with the contents of the stomach. 



The pyloric opening is the passage into the duodenum ; 

 during the first part of digestion it is completely closed, 

 but as digestion progresses it relaxes more and more, 

 suffering even undigested portions to go through it. 



THE SKIN. 



Injected portions of the skin usually show the fibro- 

 cellular tissue called the corium, elastic, yet dense and 

 tough, beneath which lie the important sweat-glands, the 

 hair-follicles, and the papillae. The web that we see is com- 

 posed of fat-cells, blood-vessels, absorbents, and unstriated 

 muscular fibre. 



SECTION OF PALM OF THE HAND OR FOOT OF CAT DOG 

 MONKEY. 



This will show the cutis above and the papillae beneath, 

 forked or trifid with loops of capillary blood-vessels. The 

 papillae are not all furnished w r ith nerve-fibres; many of them 

 have merely blood-vessels for the supply of the epidermis, 

 and those which possess nerve-fibres are usually destitute 

 of blood-vessels. The sensory papillaB contain a peculiar 

 " axile body," or bundle of fibrous tissue, upon which the 

 nerve-fibre terminates. 



If you do not mind snipping a papilla from your own 

 tongue with a sharp pair of curved scissors and soaking it 

 in a solution of soda for a few minutes, it becomes trans- 

 parent, and the nerve-fibres are distinctly seen. In some 



