44 THE SEX-COMPLEX 



Views con- There are two opinions held concerning this extra- 



sfgnmcance ordinary grouping. The one, first put forward by 

 of staining Saint-Remy 1 and Benda 2 , finds expression in the belief 

 pars anterior, that these appearances represent different phases of 

 secretory activity; whereas the alternative view, pro- 

 pounded by Gemelli 3 and others, represents the idea 

 that each type of cell has a special secretion. My own 

 view coincides with the first suggestion, and after careful 

 investigation I have come to the following conclusions 

 regarding the cycle of events : — 

 Author's First, the eosinophil cells represent the normal 



tationof actively secreting cells, which ordinarily discharge their 

 staining secretion into the blood-vessels or lymphatics. If there 

 pars anterior, be no great demand for the secretion the cells may 

 enlarge and become basophil ; they then gradually 

 become darker and more swollen until finally they 

 discharge basophil * colloid' among the neighbouring 

 cells, which may form a vesicle-like wall around the 

 secretion. After the discharge of ' colloid ' the basophil 

 cells become small, shrunken and faintly staining 

 (chromophobe cells) with large nuclei in which a network 

 of chromatin fibres can be seen. I have elsewhere 4 

 illustrated these phases from direct colour photographs. 

 Second, in certain circumstances, as in pregnancy 

 or after removal of the thyroid or suprarenals, there is 

 immediate demand for secretion — in the first cases from 

 the anterior lobe, and in the last from the posterior. 

 In pregnancy, and after thyroidectomy, the small chromo- 

 phobe cells in the anterior lobe regenerate into large 

 chromophobe cells, and eosinophilia — a more leisurely 

 process — does not occur to the usual extent. These 

 chromophobe cells have been called ' pregnancy cells ' 

 owing to their constant appearance in the pars anterior 

 during pregnancy. After removal of the suprarenals 



1 Saint-Remy, G., Compt. Rend, de VAcad. des Sci., 1892, vol. cxiv, 

 p. 770. 



2 Benda, C, Berl. Klin. Woch., 1900, vol. xxxvii, p. 1205. 



3 Gemelli, A., Folia Neuro-biol., 1908, vol, ii, p. 167, 

 * Bell, W. Blair, The Pituitary, 1919, 



