(From the Pathological Laboratories, University College Hospital Medical School 



London.) 



The Variations in the Mucin Content of the Bulbo- 

 urethral Glands.^) 



By 

 F. J. F. Barringtou, 



F. R. C. S. (Eng.) (Belt Memorial Research Fellow). 



(With Plat. L) 



The biilbo-uretliral glands are usually termed Cowper's glands in 

 the male and Bartholin's glands in the female. The word mucin through- 

 out this paper is applied to a substance or substances giving certain 

 micro-chemical chemical reactions, chiefly those with thionin and muci- 

 carmine, no chemical analysis of this substance has been made and 

 therefore whether or not it is macin in the strict chemical sense, de- 

 pends on the specificity of these reactions: it can only be said that 

 apparently identical reactions are given in organs e. g. the colon, where 

 the substance is known to be true mucin. 



It was found by Henle [5] that the ducts of Cowper's glands in 

 both adult man and young infants were distended with an alcohol 

 clotting substance, from this circumstance he concluded that the ducts 

 acted as reservoirs for secretion and that the glands had no genital 

 function. Later, Vitahs Müller [8] showed that both at birth and consid- 

 erably before, the cells and contents of the acini in human glands of both 

 sexes gave a red reaction with thionin similar to that ot the cells in the 

 rectum, but differing from the latter in fading sooner: no red colour 



^) The expanses of this Research were partly defrayed by a grant from the 

 Graham Research Fund. 



Internationale Monatsschrift f. Anat. u. Phys. XXX. 1 



