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MANUAL OF HISTOLOGY. 



tubules, nearly straight or slightly tortuous, with often a single 

 rounded caeca! extremity. However, the latter is sometimes 

 double by dichotomous division, or we find many such blind 

 terminal branches. Hence, we may speak of simple peptic 

 glands and compound peptic glands. They are all placed ver- 

 tically to the surface, 

 and consist of a homo- 

 geneous basement-mem- 

 brane with a lining of 

 secreting epithelia. (Fig. 

 166.) The basement- 

 membrane contains flat- 

 tened nuclei, and at its 

 inner aspect it is fur- 

 nished with flat, branch- 

 ing adventitial cells. 

 Each gland is divisible 

 into a duct and gland 

 proper. The latter, 

 again, consists of a neck, 

 body, and fundus. 



Usually, two, three, 

 or even more of these 

 glands, have a common 

 duct. The length of the 

 entire structure varies in 

 the different gastric re- 

 gions from 0.4 2.0 mm., 

 in accordance with the 

 thickness of the entire 

 mucous membrane in the 

 respective parts. The 

 duct, amounting to 

 about one-fourth of the 

 whole length of the tube, 

 is lined with one contin- 

 uous layer of columnar epithelial cells, similar to the surface 

 epithelium of the rest of the stomach. The neck, the thin- 

 nest portion of the minute tube, has similar cells ; but they 

 appear shorter, darker, and have a smaller ovoid nucleus. As 

 regards its breadth, the body stands about midway between 



Flo. 166. A, simple gastric gland : P, parietal ; and C, 

 chief cells. B, compound gantrta gland. Only the outline, 

 denoting the membrana propria, is drawn. 



