The Variations in the Mucin Content of the Bulbo-Urethral Glands. 7 



2. Bartholin's Glands in pregnancy and lactation. 



Observations on this were also confined entirely to tlie glands of 

 cats. The actual duration of pregnancy was not known in any case, so 

 the foetnses were weighed, and the dnration estimated from the weights. 

 The foetuses of a cat which had been isolated 20 days averaged 0,5 

 grams: in two other cats an abdominal section showed the uterine 

 Coruna to be free from external enlargements both were kept isolated, , 

 one aborted foetuses averaging 1,2 grams 20 days later and the other 

 when killed 9 days later was pregnant with foetuses weighing 0,005 

 grams. From these facts it seems probable that external enlargements 

 of the uterine coruna do not appear for several days, probably between 

 one and two weeks, after pregnancy has commenced, and that pregnant 

 cats with foetuses weighing one and a half grams or less, are in the first 

 half of pregnancy. The gestation period of a cat has been assumed to 

 be nine weeks [7]. The weight of a new born kitten varies considerably 

 but appeared to average about 100 grams. Involution of the uterus 

 appeared practically complete in two weeks, but the swellings of the 

 placental sites were still just visible. 



The glands of twenty-eight individuals were examined in the first 

 half of pregnancy i. e. when the foetus weighed 1,5 grams or less, and 

 of sixteen in the latter half. Considering the former first, the eight 

 earliest had uterine swellings which were just visible and the foetuses 

 were too small to take out and weigh: — less than 0,005 grams — • these 

 were probably in the first two weeks of pregnancy. Bartholin's glands 

 in these eight cats were composed of acini of cubical or short columnar 

 cells, a large proportion of which showed some mucin, but the amount 

 was not great in any but two of the eight, and these had a very few 

 cells containing a large amount of mucin: it often consisted only of 

 a faint streak on the surface of the cell next the lumen. The nuclei 

 were large and clear. In the four latest — foetuses Y? — 1 V2 grams, 

 there was a much greater amount of mucin present in the gland cells, 

 partly through a greater proportion of cells containing it, but chiefly 

 through the presence of a considerable number of tall columnar cells 

 containing a large amount of mucin and having deeply stained com- 

 pressed nuclei: the acini formed of these cells were chiefly at the peri- 



