E. SMALL INTESTINE, BY E. VERSON. 575 



There is in all this, then, but little that is opposed to the 

 view expressed by Ley dig and F. E. Schulze, that the epi- 

 thelial cells are to be regarded as one-celled glands ; for we 

 need only regard the material discharged by the cell as its 

 secretion ; and the cell wall, with the remainder of the contained 

 material, as the gland. Further, it may be remarked that up 

 to the present time there is no evidence against the supposition 

 that it is only at a certain period of their development that 

 the cells undergo metamorphosis into goblet cells. 



Moreover, at present it cannot be denied that besides the 

 epithelial cells from which the goblet cells already described 

 originate, other peculiar goblet or tubiform structures are pre- 

 sent. This has not indeed been absolutely demonstrated, but 

 it constitutes no objection to the view that such structures 

 cannot be seen in the fresh state, and cannot be distinguished 

 from the artificial goblet cells under altered conditions.* 



The cup-cell metamorphosis affects not only the cells, but as 

 Basch'f* states, the nuclei ; for when the intestinal epithelium 

 of the frog is treated with boracic acid, similar appearances are 

 frequently produced in them. The nuclei are then seen to be 

 ruptured in one or two places, and masses of their contents 

 not unfrequently project from the opening. 



Heidenhain^: maintained that the attached extremity of the 

 cells of the epithelium of the villi, becoming gradually attenuated, 

 is prolonged into a long process continuous with the connective 

 tissue corpuscles of the parenchyma of the villi. These state- 

 ments have been accepted, however, by only a few histologists, 

 and have been denied by many. 



Amongst the animals best adapted for the observation of the 

 connection of the epithelium of the villi with a subjacent 

 plexus, the guinea-pig may be named. In these animals and 

 in the rat the epithelium of the villi frequently becomes de- 



* The now extensive literature of this subject is fully given in Eiraer's 

 Treatise Zur Geschichte der Becherzellen, "On the History of Goblet Cells." 

 Berlin, 1868. 



t Centralblatt, 1869. 



t Die Absorptionswege des Fettes, "The Mode of Absorption of Fat;" 

 Moleschott's Untersuchungen, Band iv. 



