228 SKIN, HAIR, AND NAILS, BY ALFRED BIESIADECKI. 



flattened is the form assumed by the cells, so that they come to 

 lie with their long axes parallel to the surface of the skin. The 

 cell bodies become more rigid and more homogeneous, the 

 nuclei smaller, and often surrounded by a bright halo. In pre- 

 parations hardened in chromic acid, they easily fall out of the 

 section, leaving a spherical cavity; but we may still more 

 frequently meet, in the cells of this series, with round empty 

 spaces corresponding in size with the cell nuclei, to one side of 

 which a crescentic crumpled and flattened nucleus is attached. 

 There are small vacuolse within the cells, that especially occur 

 in the most superficial cells of this layer, and in the fresh state 

 are probably filled with a clear fluid. 



Besides the cells that have just been described, presenting 

 the general characters of epithelial cells, others of a different 

 nature are here and there found in the mucous layers when 

 obtained from the living subject. These are most easily dis- 

 tinguished in the middle and upper layers of the cells forming 

 the mucous layer, where they can be recognized by the refrac- 

 tion of their protoplasm, and by their minute size. They are 

 commonly elongated, appearing as if they had been com- 

 pressed between two epithelial cells, or they give off fine pro- 

 cesses that run between the several epithelial cells. Their 

 protoplasm is highly refractile, and becomes deeply stained by 

 carmine, whilst the nucleus can only be recognized with diffi- 

 culty. This is usually distinguishable, however, after being 

 subjected to the imbibition of carmine. In the deepest cell- 

 rows of the mucous layer such cells are much more difficult 

 to demonstrate, since they offer some points of similarity to the 

 cells of which these are composed ; for the cells of these layers 

 possess a similar highly refractile protoplasm, become deeply 

 stained with carmine, and only differ from the former by 

 their well-defined nucleus. They are most easily perceived in 

 those cases in which one half is found between the cells of 

 the mucous layer, whilst the other half is imbedded in the 

 corium (Biesiadecki). These cells strongly remind one of the 

 so-called migrating cells. They are met with in the subcutane- 

 ous connective tissue, where they are for the most part found 

 in the neighbourhood of the bloodvessels, and also between 

 the fibrillse of the corium; and we find them again in the 



