384 



Messrs. J. N. Langley and H. Sewall. [Nov. 27, 



granules, to distinguish them from others which occur immediately 

 beneath the basement membrane. These "border" granules are 

 smaller and more highly refractive ; they occur usually in small 

 clumps. 



The points mentioned above as observable in the fresh tissue, can 

 also in the main be observed in glands treated first with osmic acid 

 and then with alcohol. There are one or two things to be noticed in 

 sections of glands so treated. The border granules stain more deeply 

 and readily than the central granules. The mucous cell granules 

 have disappeared, the cells present the usual characters of a mucous 

 cell in hardened specimens. In the resting gland the nuclei are 

 generally hidden; in the digesting gland the nuclei are large, spherical, 

 situated in the clear zone, with faint outlines ; the nucleolus is deeply 

 stained and prominent. In the digesting there are fewer obvious 

 mucous cells than in the resting gland. 



iNussbaum* has made some observations on the glands treated with 

 osmic acid j it will be noticed that we differ from him in almost every 

 respect. 



Swiecickif found the glands after treatment with alcohol, to be, 

 in the digesting state as a rule, larger, more granular, and better 

 staining. The greater granulation here obviously only means that in 

 the digesting state there is a greater amount of substance precipitable 

 by alcohol in the granular condition. The cells when alive are less 

 granular during digestion. 



Partsch,^ working also with hardened specimens, found the glands 

 to increase in size as they secreted, but only for the first 5 — 10 hours. 



Whilst not prepared to deny that an increase of size may in the 

 first stages take place, we have failed to observe it, and are inclined 

 to think that as the granules are used up, there is a steady diminution 

 in the size of the glands. 



Comparing Grriitzner's § observations on the amount of ferment 

 present in the glands in hunger and digestion with our own on their 

 varying granular state, we find that the ferment diminishes during 

 digestion as do the granules. For this and other reasons we are 

 inclined to consider the granules as stored up cell products which, on 

 suffering molecular re- arrangement, give rise amongst other substances 

 to the proteid ferment. 



JSTussbaum also holds this, ascribing however both to granules and 

 ferment a different maximal time. We cannot agree with Nussbaum's 

 view that the depth of staining with osmic acid tells the amount of 

 ferment unless perhaps it is restricted much more than he is inclined 



* Max Schiiltze. <c Arch. f. Mik. Anat." Bd. xiii, p. 746, 1877. 

 f Pfluger. " Archiv f. d. G-es. Physiologie," Bd. xiii, p. 444, 1876. 

 X Max Schiiltze. " Arch. f. Mik. Anat." Bd. xiv, p. 179, 1877. 

 § PJliiger. "Arch. f. d. Gres. Physiologie," Bd. xyi, p. 122, 1S77. 



