1910.] Hydrochloric Acid in the Gastric Tubules. 61 
of Prussian blue was occasionally observed in a rift running parallel to a 
gland, and perpendicular to the surface, regarded by Lepine as, in all 
probability, a lymphatic channel. He explained this as due to the lymphatic 
space readily permitting the osmosis of the two fluids, and as iron solutions are 
always slightly acid (a solution of sulphate and lactate of iron always giving 
an acid reaction), the conditions sufficed for the formation of Prussian blue. 
The gastric mucosz of dogs, killed by section of the medulla during full 
digestion, were also placed in contact with a litmus solution, but in these 
cases an acid reaction was not obtained. : 
From these varied experiments Lepine concluded that the cells of the 
gastric glands did not possess an acid reaction, but he also stated that the 
failure to demonstrate acid did not prevent one kind of cell possessing the 
function of preparing the acid, if not of completely elaborating it. In this 
connection he refers to the work of Ebstein and Grutzner,* in which the 
view is expressed that probably the secretion elaborated by the parietal 
cells is rich in chlorides of the alkalies, this, by an unknown process, together 
with the inactive pepsin from the chief cells, becoming acid first on the free 
surface of the gastric mucosa. 
In a discussion that followed the reading of the report of Lepine’s earlier 
experiments (p. 60),f Vulpian did not regard the results as decisive, and 
Rabuteau recommended the substitution of sodium ferrocyanide for the 
potassium salt, because of the rapidly fatal action of the latter on cells, 
which possibly prevented their coloration, Ranvier, however, stated that 
by slow injection of small doses an enormous quantity of the potassium salt 
could be introduced into rabbits without causing their death. In his own 
experiments he observed that the diffusion of the salt was not the same in 
all the tissues and fluids, and thought that Lepine’s negative results were 
due to this inequality of diffusion. He found the salt present in great 
quantity in the connective tissue and lymph, but not in the muscles. He 
also found that the elimination of the salt was very rapid, that it made its 
appearance very rapidly in the urine, and was present in great quantity, the 
urine at the same time being increased in amount. 
In an abstract of Lepine’s work, Maly{ makes the criticism that the 
alkaline solution used was not free from objection, since it would contain 
the colloidal ferric hydrate, and therefore, owing to the lack of diffusion of 
one of the salts, Prussian blue could not be deposited within the cell if acid 
were present. 
* W. Ebstein and Grutzner, ‘ Pfliiger’s Archiv,’ 1874, vol. 8, p. 150. 
t ‘Comptes Rendus,’ 1872, vol. 24, p. 221. 
t R. Maly, ‘Jahresb. d. Thier. Chem.,’ 1873, p. 174. 
