684 Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. [sess. 
the observation that in all the specimens examined by them many 
small zymogen grannies are present in the cells. 
I have not been able to convince myself of the accuracy of this 
statement except in a modified form, because of the fact that the 
cells exhibit a second period of secretion and exhaustion after they 
have once regained their resting condition. One would have 
expected complete recovery to be delayed until the stomach had 
emptied itself of its contents, were secretion and reparation going 
hand in hand. Further, I believe that the small granules are in 
process of growth, rather than in process of solution. I have also 
been unable to see any increase of protoplasm during secretion, 
though it does undoubtedly increase very rapidly as soon as the maxi- 
mum of the secretory wave is passed, and this is indicated by the 
staining reaction which changes from feeble affinity for the blue dye 
to an affinity for the acid eosine, whereby the protoplasm stains some- 
what reddish or reddish-grey ; indicating, I believe, that an absorp- 
tion of albumin is taking place from the lymph into the protoplasm. 
I think it would be more correctly stated if one said that repair 
goes on during secretion, i.e. prozymogen is produced at the same 
time that the zymogen already formed is being secreted by the cell. 
With regard to the nuclei, they increase slightly in size at the 
very commencement of secretion, but soon become smaller and 
smaller, and finally show great wrinkling and puckering of the 
nuclear wall [Heidenliain (8), Hermann (10), Schieferdecker (24), 
Mann (16), etc.], owing to diminution of their contents. When 
repair sets in, which it does soon after it has begun in the proto- 
plasm, the nuclei rapidly lose their wrinkled appearance and swell 
up to a considerable size, becoming much bigger than at the 
beginning of secretion, to again diminish somewhat as the resting 
stage is reached. 
During nuclear activity the chromatin spreads itself out upon 
the inner surface of the nuclear membrane and becomes diminished 
in amount, losing some of its constituents, which are again replac- 
able during recuperation ; it becomes spread out and pale-looking 
as if filled with a fluid, as observed by Bataillon (2), 1891, and 
further, it undoubtedly moves about during the process. 
Of still more interest is, I think, the fact that when the cell is 
nearly exhausted the affinity of the chromatin for the blue dye 
