STARVATION OF VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL TISSUES. 63 
in the nature of their contents ; they cannot be regarded as 
unicellular glands unless all cells normally undergoing degenera- 
tion and destruction are to be regarded as such^ and they 
certainly do not serve to facilitate desquamation,, as they may be 
developed and ultimately disappear in excessive numbers without 
any tendency to desquamation. 
The nature of the granular matter is easily determined by 
means of alcohol and ether, the granules being completely and 
rapidy dissolved under the influence of these reagents. The 
first effect of the solvents is to cause active swarming of the 
granules, which either melt together into larger granules and 
globules previous to dissolving, or merely vanish, of a sudden, 
without the occurrence of such a process. The swarming 
granules occasionally become dispersed ere dissolving and spread 
for some distance in the interspaces between the two layers of 
epidermis ; but I have never seen them discharged externally, 
even where the parent cells have been so much distended as to 
cause elevations of the surface. After the dissolution of the 
granules open spaces are left in the deeper layer of epidermis 
precisely similar to those occurring normally in it, save in cases 
where the cells have only undergone partial transfcrmation ere 
the application of the reagents, when traces of an atrophied 
cell-wail and nucleus are more or less distinctly recognisable in 
the spaces. 
It is easy to trace the various stages of transition by which 
the normal epidermal cells are transformed into mature granule 
cells. The earliest symptom of impending transformation con- 
sists in an increased refractiveness and density of the cell 
contents. They acquire a yellowish tint, granules begin to 
appear, and, continuing to accumulate, from a dense yellow or 
brown mass, which ultimately occupies the entire cell cavity 
{;pide fig. I, a and b). 
Fig. 4. — Stages in the development of granule eells. x 1000, A Young 
eell, B. Fully developed cell. 
