SECRETING STRUCTURES. 21 



The discrepant observation of Boehm* and Krausef on the 

 glands of Peyer, were in some measure reconciled by Henle, who 

 referred them to the same class of structures as the closed vesi- 

 cular extremities of the ducts of compound glands. Dr. Allen 

 Thomson has observed, that the primitive condition of the 

 gastric and intestinal gland is a closed vesicle.J Wasmann 

 described the structure of the gastric glands in the pig ; and 

 his description will be fully explained by the following observa- 

 tions and views.. Hallman has given a detailed account of the 

 testicle of the ray, which closely resembles that of the Squalus 

 comubicus, as described in another part of this chapter ,|| None of 

 the recent observations on the developement of the spermatozoa, 

 have proved, that the vesicles, in which they are formed, are the 

 epithelium cells of the ducts of the testicle. I am indebted to Dr. 

 Allen Thomson for directing my attention to a notice in Valen- 

 tin's Repertorium, 1841, of a Dissertation by Erdl,** in which 

 he describes, in the kidney of that mollusk, cells, the nuclei 

 of which pass out by the duct of the gland. It does not ap- 

 pear, however, that Erdl had discovered the uric acid within 

 the cell.tt 



If the membrane, which lines the secreting portion of the 

 internal surface of the ink-bag of Loligo sagittata (Lamark) be 

 carefully freed from adhering secretion by washing, it will be 

 found to consist almost entirely of nucleated cells, of a dark 

 brown or black colour. These cells are spherical or ovoidal. 

 Their nuclei consist of cells, grouped together in a mass. Be- 

 tween these composite nuclei, and the walls of their contain- 

 ing cells, is a fluid of a dark brown colour. This fluid re- 

 sembles, in every respect, the secretion of the ink-bag itself. 



* De Gland. Intestln. Struct. Penit., 1835. 



t Miiller's " Archiv." 1837. 



J Proceedings of British Association, 1840. 



De Diyestione Nonnulla, Diss. manq. Berol, 1839. 



|| Miiller's " Archiv." 1840. 



** De Helicis Algirce vasts sanguiferis, 1840. 



ft Mr. Bowman has shown that the fat in the fatty liver is contained in the secreting 

 cells. " Observations on the Minute Structtire of the Fatty Degeneration of the Liverf 

 Jan. 1842. 



