The Variations in the Mucin Content of the Bulbo-Urethral Glands. 15 



tain secretory fibres for Bartholin'a gland, the hypogastric has a very 

 marked effect on the excretion of mucin from the cells, whereas the 

 pelvic has at most very little, and probably none at all. 



The glands showed no histological changes a week or more after 

 division of one pelvic or hypogastric nerve. Cowper's gland in the 

 cat appeared to have the same nerve supply as Barthohn's though 

 secretory fibres to it in the pelvic nerve have not been demonstrated. 

 Prolonged stimulation of the hypogastric produced a marked diminu- 

 tion in the mucin of the gland cells on the same side : for some reason 

 complete exhaustion of the cells appeared more difficult to obtain 

 than in the female. This effect was abolished by previously dividing 

 the inferior splanchnic nerves and allowing them to degenerate. Pro- 

 longed stimulation of the pelvic or pudic nerves produced no altera- 

 tion in the gland cells at all. 



Marked diminution in the mucin of the cells of Cowper's gland 

 was produced by stimulation of the hypogastric nerve in the guinea- 

 pig and the rat. One and a half hours stimulation in the case of the 

 guinea-pig usually produced an obvious effect and in the rat an even 

 shorter time : the experiments were more difficult than in the cat owing 

 to the much greater difficulty of keeping the animal ahve under an 

 anaesthetic for a sufficiently long period. The effect in the guinea-pig 

 was abolished by degenerative section of the inferior splanchnics: in 

 the rat this experiment was not performed. 



Prolonged stimulation of the pelvic nerve in the guinea-pig pro- 

 duced no changes in the gland epithilium, this was not done in the rat. 

 Division of one hypogastric or pelvic nerve produced no histological 

 changes in the corresponding gland in guinea-pigs nine and twelve 

 days after the operation respectively or in a longer period : this was. the 

 same whether the animals were isolated or in cages with females. 



III. Effects of removal of the testes or ovaries. 



It was first observed by John Hunter that the Cowper's glands 

 of animals castrated when young failed to develop at puberty, and sub- 

 sequently by Griffiths [4] that in the cat they underwent regression 

 after castration in adult hfe. This regression is best seen in such ani- 



