The Variations in the Mucin Content of the Bulbo-Urethral Glands. 9 



siderable number of acini contained masses of homogeneous secretion. 

 In tlie remaining two the uterus was almost completely involuted, in 

 one the mucin was still less evident, the other showed a considerable 

 amount though all the cells were short: this last was the only case in 

 the thirteen in which lactation was not present when the animal was 

 killed. 



The glands of twenty-one cats were examined during lactation 

 but after involution of the uterus. Lactation was profuse in twenty 

 of these, in the other it was only sHght: in the glands of that one most 

 of the cells contained mucin and there were a fair proportion of tall 

 columnar cells. In one which parturition was known to have occurred 

 two weeks before, the gland resembled those described in the second 

 week after parturition. In another where parturition occurred a month 

 previously the gland consisted almost entirely of dilated acini formed 

 of short cells rather less than half of which contained mucin, the acini 

 contained both mucin and homogeneous substance. Later, two and a 

 half months after parturition, a case showed the gland to be formed of 

 acini of flattened cells, hardly any of which contained mucin, and a 

 large number the acini were distended with homogeneous secretion; 

 mucin was absent from the lumina of the acini. With four exceptions 

 the glands of the twenty cats in which lactation was profuse, fell more 

 or less into a series with the two weeks and the two and a half months 

 glands at its extremes: most of them approximated more to the two 

 and a half months. The exceptional cases all showed glands with a 

 very large amount of mucin in their cells. The uteri and ovaries of 

 each animal were examined as in the non-pregnant ones. The ovaries 

 of three of the twenty-one lactating cats had marked dilatation of the 

 Graafian follicles and these all occurred in the four exceptional cases: 

 the uterine glands showed a considerable hypertrophy in five cases 

 and four of them were the four exceptional ones. It was thus clear 

 that a large amount of mucin occuring in the cells of Bartholin's glands 

 during lactation was exceptional, and when it occurred, was associated 

 with the same uterine and ovarian conditions as when it occurred apart 

 from pregnancy at all. It was therefore due probably to the onset of 

 oestrus during lactation. The case with very little milk did not come 



