PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. II 



The Histology and Physiology of the Gastric Glands. By R. R. 

 Bensley, B.A., M.B., Assistant Demonstrator of Biology, Univer- 

 sity of Toronto. 



(Read November 28, 1896.) 



PRELIMINARY NOTICE. 



In nearly all vertebrates, in which the histology of the stomach has been inves- 

 tigated, the mucous membrane of that portion immediately preceding the pyloric 

 orifice has been found to contain glands differing in certain characters from the 

 glands of the rest of the stomach, and known technically as the pyloric glands. 

 The morphological relation of these glands to the other gastric glands in the 

 lower vertebrates has excited little interest, but in the mammalia, in which the 

 subject assumes great physiological importance, this relation has been the subject 

 of numerous researches, and has been examined from widely different points of 

 view. Heidenhain^ and Ebstein^ compared the cells of these glands with the 

 chief cells of the fundus glands in respect to the action on them of dilute acids 

 and alkalies, and to the appearances presented in different phases of secretory 

 activity, and came to the conclusion that the two kinds of cells were of similar 

 nature. Further force was imparted to this conclusion by the discovery that the 

 pyloric mucous membrane contained a ferment capable of digesting fibrin in the 

 presence of dilute hydrochloric acid, and by the experiment of Heidenhain,^ who 

 established a pyloric sac entirely separate from the fundus mucosa, which, even 

 after five months yielded a secretion rich in pepsin. 



The method adopted by Heidenhain and Ebstein in investigating the physio- 

 logical and morphological value of the pyloric glands was to a certain extent the 

 correct one, and the reason that it did not lead, in their hands, to a more convincing 

 result was that they examined cells in which only a portion of the elements of the 

 living cells was preserved. The researches of Langley, * alone, and in conjunction 

 with Sewall, have taught us that the secretion of pepsin is intimately, connected with 

 the formation and disappearance of coarse granules in the chief cells, and he has 

 offered us the most convincing proof that these granules are the zymogen of 

 Heidenhain, 5 Ebstein, and Grutzner,* and comparable to the granules observed in 

 the pancreas and salivary glands. Any cytological research which does not take into 

 consideration these zymogen granules cannot fail to lead to erroneous results. 

 Unfortunately, it has been found difficult to preserve these granules, and in his first 

 observations on the mammalian glands, Langley depended largely on fresh, or living 

 material. Subsequently he found that in some animals the granules could be fixed, 

 and the part taken by them in secretion investigated by the use of solutions of osmic 

 acid. 



Langley and Sewall observed that the coarse granules discovered by them in 

 the fundus glands were not to be found in the pyloric glands, and concluded that 

 the appearance of granules in the cells was not a necessary feature of zymogenesis. 



(i) Arch, fur Mik. Anat. Bd. VI., p. 368. 



(2) Arch, fur Mik. Anat. Bd. VI., p. 315. 



(3) Pflueger's Archiv. Vol. XVIII. 



(4) Journal of Physiology. Vols. II., III., and others. 



(5) Pflueger's Archiv. Vol. X., and Hermann's Handbuch, Vol. V. 

 ((■6) Pflueger's Archiv. Vol. VIII. 



