388 



Baron Ettingshausen. 



[Nov. 27, 



respects as much as possible alike, were taken ; one was killed hungry, 

 i.e. , twenty-four hours after feeding, the other in full digestion some 

 5 — 6 hours after a plenteous meal. The gastric mucous membrane 

 showed the usual difference to the unaided eye and to microscopical 

 examination ; equal-sized pieces were removed from as near as possible 

 a corresponding position of the fundus of each animal. They were 

 tested by Mr. Lea for ferment, the resting more granular piece was 

 found to possess a not inconsiderably greater amount of ferment than 

 the active less granular piece. We may recall that Grnitzner found 

 the amount of ferment to diminish during digestion. 



There is one other fact which leads us to connect the chief-cell gra- 

 nules with the ferment ; in protracted hunger the chief-cell granules, 

 instead of increasing diminish, as we have mentioned above, occurs in 

 the newt ; according to Grriitzner ? in protracted hunger, the ferment- 

 content of the gastric mucous membrane diminishes. 



To return to the consideration of the meaning of the finely gra- 

 nular chief-cells of the greater curvature. These differ but little, 

 histologically, from the pyloric gland cells. Both form pepsin. Such 

 close similarity in form and function justify us in considering them to 

 be fundamentally the same kind of cell. How, then, do they stand 

 related to the coarsely granular chief -cells ? The distinguishing features 

 of the latter are their coarsely granular appearance and their large 

 ferment- content ; in an extreme digestive stage these features become 

 much less conspicuous. We are led, then, to think that the coarsely 

 granular chief-cells are but a more highly developed form of the cells 

 found in the other parts of the stomach as the finely granular chief- 

 eells and pyloric gland cells. 



The greater curvature of the rabbit probably corresponds to the 

 intermediary portion of the stomachs of dog, cat, and rat. 



It will be noticed that in the main we advocate Heidenhain's views, 

 objecting, however, to the statement that the chief-cells and the pyloric 

 gland cells are identical, since their normal appearance is so strikingly 

 different. 



The investigations, of which the foregoing is a brief account, were 

 carried on in the Physiological Laboratory, Cambridge. 



III. "Report on Phyto-Palaeontological Investigations of the 

 Fossil Flora of Sheppey." By Dr. Constantin Baron 

 Ettingshausen, Professor in the University of Graz, 

 Austria. Communicated by Professor Huxley, Sec. U.S. 

 Received November 3, 1879. 



One of the most important, if not the most important, locality for 

 the Eocene Flora of Great Britain, and perhaps of the tertiary forma- 



