The Variations in the Mucin Content of the Bulbo-Urethral Glands. 3 



that of a pea. It was surrounded by a capsule of striped muscle to which 

 a branch of the pudic nerve could be traced. 



Sections of the gland showed it to be composed of acini formed of 

 a single layer of epithilium lying in a fibro-areolar stroma containing 

 elastic fibres and plain muscle. The epithilial cells of the acini showed 

 all gradations between two extreme types: (i) A tall columnar cell 

 with a clear body, giving a marked mucin reaction, and possessing deeply 

 stained, compressed nucleus at its base: this cell was sharply marked 

 off from those on either side, especially when stained only with haema- 

 toxylin: and (ii) a cubical or flattened cell, giving no mucin reaction, 

 consisting of a large, round, clearly stained nucleus surrounded by ^ 

 small amount of faintly stained cytoplasm: the nucleus contained a 

 well marked nucleolus and chromatin network : the separation between 

 such cells was ill-defined. The cells in the same acinus might vary consid- 

 erably, particularly in the degree of the mucin reaction, but the two 

 extremes were not associated in the same acinus: they might, however, 

 be seen in different acini of the same gland. G-oblet cells were never 

 found. The glands of different individuals varied between the two ex- 

 tremes of being formed almost entirely of acini composed of one or 

 other of the two extreme types of cell, but the two glands of the same 

 individual resembled each other closely. The interstitial tissue of those 

 glands composed chiefly of the columnar type of cell appeared relatively 

 more scanty than in those composed chiefly of the cubical. The lumina 

 of the acini composed of the columnar cells were usually smaller than 

 in those composed of cubical or flattened cells. From the facts that 

 all gradations between the two extreme types of cell occurred, and that 

 glands were seen consisting almost entirely of one extreme type or the 

 other, it seemed probable that the various appearances seen in the epi- 

 thilial cells represented various stages in the activity of a single kind, 

 of cell, and not different kinds of cells. 



The smaller ducts were lined by a layer of columnar epithilium 

 resting on a layer of cubical cells, the cells next the lumen not infre- 

 quently contained mucin. The larger ducts were lined by a stratified 

 epithilium resembling that of the vagina. 



Secretion in the acini appeared in two forms: (i) as a network 



1* 



