PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



15 



inner zone presenting an irregular network of much larger meshes, and containing 

 a secreted substance, which behaves in a peculiar way to staining agents. By the 

 ordinary stains this portion of the cell appears clear and transparent. The substance 

 contained in the inner zone of the cell appears to be in some respects similar to 

 mucin. It gives a faint metachromatic red stain with thionin, and stains intensely 

 with Bordeaux R. and Indulin. The latter dye has rendered me considerable service 

 in determining the distribution of this kind of secretion in the stomach. I have 

 found the most satisfactory method of applying this stain to be in the form of 

 Ruber's blood fluid, consisting of two grammes each of indulin, eosin, and 

 aurantia, dissolved in thirty grammes of pure glycerine, and diluted with four 

 hundred times its volume of distilled water before use. Sections of the fundus 

 mucous membrane immersed in this fluid for one-half hour or longer, show all 

 parts stained red, with the exception of the blood corpuscles, which are yellow, 

 the nuclei of the cells and the mucigenous borders of the surface cylindrical cells, 

 which take a faint haematoxylin tint, and the secretion in the cells of the upper 

 portions of the glands, which takes an intense dark blue color. Stained secretion 

 may also be observed in the lumen of the gland. In sections stained thus the 

 appearance of the inner zone of the cell is different from that above described. It is 

 now found to be pervaded by a close-meshed network of coarse fibres, both the 

 network and the substance enclosed in its meshes being indulinophilous, and 

 often presenting a vacuolated appearance. This appearance seems to me to be 

 due to the formation of a secondary reticulum by precipitation in this form of the 

 solids of the secretion. At the junction of the two zones of the cell the reticulum 

 of the outer zone is much finer in texture and is chromophilous, so that in sections 

 stained in haematoxylin alone, the cell appears to be subdivided by a blue stained 

 band into the two zones. In sections stained in the indulin mixture it is frequently 

 seen that a small quantity of indulinophilous material is dififused through that 

 portion of the outer zone of the cell, between the chromophilous band above 

 referred to and the nucleus. The size of the indulinophilous zone varies with the 

 position of the cell. In the upper part of the neck of the gland it involves only a 

 small portion of the cell, but on passing down the gland, increases gradually in 

 width, until at the lowest portion of the neck of the gland it fills nearly the whole 

 cell. The nuclei of these cells are placed near the base, and vary in shape with the 

 amount of secretion present ; in those cells, which possess a large protoplasmic zone, 

 the nuclei are oval or round; in the cell filled with secretion they are irregular 

 and flattened. It is only in cells, however, in which the indulinophilous zone 

 extends to the nucleus that any irregularity of shape is to be observed. Mitoses 

 may frequently be observed in those cells, even when filled wi.h secretion. Among 

 the indulinophilous cells of the lower portion of the neck may be observed a few 

 zymogenic cells. An occasional indulinophilous cell may also be observed among 

 the chief cells of the body of the gland, and these are probably the cells observed 

 by Pilliet,'7 Trinkler, '« and others, and regarded as stages in the transformation 

 of border into chief cells, or vice versa. 



The cells of the collecting duct, and the lower cells of the mouth of the gland, 

 also contain indulinophilous secretion, in the shape of a rounded clump in the 

 midst of the protoplasm of the cell, near the nucleus, possessing the same structure 

 and staining properties as the inner zone of the cells of the gland neck. Passing 

 lip the mouth of the gland, this clump gradually approaches the free surface, 

 and loses its indulinophilous character, finally fading into the mucigenous bordef 

 of th_ surface epithelium. In these cells, as Bizzozero '» oDserred, the mitoses are* 

 more frequent than in the neck cells. 



There is some evidence that the indulinophilous cells of the neck of the gland 



(17) Journal de 1' Anatomie, etc. No. 5. 1887. 



(18) Archivf. Mik. Anat. Bd. XXIV. 

 (ig) Archiv f. Mik. Anat. Bd. XLII. 



