84 Miss M. P. FitzGerald. The Origin of the [June 4, 
due to an abnormal condition of the cell membrane brought about by one or 
more of the salts contained in the injection solution, can only be ascertained 
by further investigation. 
In reference to this point, Carnot and Lelievre,* in a recent paper, brought 
forward the view that the disposition of the parietal cells indicates a double 
physiological rdle, and they suggest that these cells give origin to both a 
digestive and an “ internal” secretion. They show that the situation of the 
greater number of the parietal cells in the necks of the gland tubules 
adjoining the crypts facilitates the ready discharge of their secretion directed 
towards the surface, but that in addition to this the cells are in contact 
with the peri-tubular vascular network. They point out that this reciprocal 
relationship is best seen in the body of the gland tubule, where the chief 
cells exceed the parietal cells in number, and that in longitudinal sections, 
particularly in those of the stomach in which the vessels have been injected 
with carmine, the blood-vessels are seen to be surrounded on all sides by 
parietal cells, just as if the capillary constituted the central lumen of a gland. 
The parietal cells which thus surround a vessel belong to different gland 
tubules, and their intra-cellular canaliculi, demonstrated in this instance both 
by the Golgi-Cajal method and by iron hematoxylin, accordingly diverge 
toward three or four independent acini (dog). 
These investigators further point out that this arrangement of the parietal 
cells in relation to the blood-vessels is very similar to that existing between 
the hepatic cells and the blood-vessels, and hold that it indicates an imbrica- 
tion of two glandular systems, the one orientated in relation to the excretory 
canal, and the other in relation to the vessels. They also find it difficult 
to accept the idea that this concentric arrangement of the parietal cells in 
relation to the capillaries could have for its sole object the withdrawal from 
the blood of secretory products, and therefore they advance the view that 
the surface of contact indicates that a secretion, indiscernable histologically, 
is discharged in an inverse direction to that going forth from the cell to 
the central lumen of the tubule. They further state that evidence in 
support of the view of an elaboration of an internal secretion by the gastric 
glands, and attributable probably to the parietal cells, had already been 
obtained from physiological experiments in process of execution at the time 
of publication. 
If such be the case it can be understood in the event of an upsetting 
of the unknown mechanism governing the direction of the digestive secretion 
that hydrochloric acid might then be discharged in the same direction as the 
internal secretion, and thus be found to be present in the lymph and blood- 
* P. Carnot et A. Leliévre, ‘Compt. Rend. Soc. Biol.,’ 1909, vol. 66, No. 3. 
