1910. | Aydrochloric Acid in the Gastric Tubules. oo 
After quickly detaching the glands from the external coats of a portion of 
the stomach wall, isolated immediately after death, and pressing these between 
blue litmus paper, he found the reaction to be, as a rule, neutral, or, at most, 
faintly acid, even during full digestive activity. Nevertheless, he was of the 
opinion that the acid was formed in the glands, and he explains the lack of the 
acid reaction by supposing (1) the acid to be secreted in very small quantities, 
and to be rapidly and completely expelled after formation from the glandular 
lumina; and (2), by the neutralisation of the acid if it diffused out into the 
surrounding alkaline lymph. 
In the stomach (“ Vormagen”) of the hen, which is composed of many 
multilobular glands—the secretion of each lobe being discharged into a 
central cavity and thence into a common excretory canal in communication 
with the stomach—the aggregation of the secretion rendered it sometimes 
possible to demonstrate an acid reaction to litmus paper. | 
In rabbits, he also found the reaction of the tubules to be neutral to litmus 
paper, although the secretion of the surface of the mucosa was intensely acid. 
Briicke also held the view that when hydrochloric acid is formed in the cells, 
an alkaline fluid of equal concentration must also be formed which passes 
into the lymph and blood of the gastric mucosa; thus the isolated glandular 
tissue should not give an acid reaction with litmus paper. 
The recognition of the existence of two kinds of cells in the fundus glands 
(“ Labdriisen ”), the description of which was afforded by Heidenhain* and 
Rollett} in quick succession, together with the suggestion made by Heidenhain 
of their functional difference, 7.c. of the formation of pepsin by the chief cells 
(Rollett’s adelomorph cells), and of the acid of the gastric juice by the parietal 
cells (Rollett’s delomorph cells), gave renewed impetus to the investigation 
of the seat of the acid formation ; and many micro-chemical methods were 
subsequently employed to determine a possible connection between the 
secretion of acid and the parietal cells in particular. 
Rollett (1871),f hoping to establish such a connection between different 
regions or certain cells of the gastric glands (“ Labdriisen”), repeated the 
experiment of Claude Bernard, but used sodium ferrocyanide instead of the 
potassium salt, in conjunction with lactate of iron. He was unable to obtain 
uniform results, and although many rabbits were injected, in only two cases 
did he obtain a light blue tinge on the surface of the mucosa, which appeared: 
in the transitional region of the Portio Pyloria. 
* Heidenhain, ‘Arch. Mikros. Anat.,’ 1870. 
+ A. Rollett, ‘Centralbl. Med. Wiss.,’ 1870, pp. 21, 22. 
{ A. Rollett, ‘Untersuch. a. d. Inst. f. Physiol. u. Histol., Graz, 1871, Part 2, p. 192. 
