ANATOMY OF THE ALIMENTARY CANAL. 
475 
The proper Gland-tubes of the Pyloric end of the Stomach. 
These tubes contain a different epithelium to that in the ducts, as Ebstein (95) first 
pointed out. He described the character of the epithelium of these glands in animals 
killed while fasting and also during digestion ; he found that in the former case the cells 
are composed of a transparent, faintly granular cell-substance, the nuclei being situated 
at the base of the cells ( loc . cit. fig. ii.) ; in the latter case the cells become cloudy 
with granules, are shrunken, and are deeply stained by carmine or anilin ; and Ebstein 
has figured (figs. iii. & iv.) the nuclei as spherical in form. 
If, in a vertical section of the stomach, we examine a part of one of the coiled tubes 
running vertically, and view the tube from the outside, we notice between the epithelial 
cells a fine reticulum, similar to, but much finer than any we have seen before (see fig. 37, 
Plate 43). The nuclei of the epithelial cells are seen from this point of view as circular 
bodies, and are stained very slightly by hsematoxylin, the cell-substance hardly being 
stained at all ; the reticulum is deeply stained. If in the section we find a tube which 
has been cut transversely (so that the epithelium is cut vertically), we notice the separate 
epithelial cells resting apparently on the basement membrane, and we find a dark line at 
the base of each cell (see fig. 38, a). To what is the dark line due 1 No doubt, in some 
measure, to the nuclei ; and w T e should expect the flat circular nuclei when seen from the 
side (that is to say, when the light has to pass through their long diameter) to intercept 
the light more than when viewed from above or beloAV. But that the dark line is due to 
something else than the nuclei, is easily seen where the cells are placed rather obliquely 
to the line of the section (see fig. 38, b). Here we can partly see the nuclei, and yet the 
dark lines are present. In sections which have cut the epithelial cells more obliquely, 
we find that the dark line is partly formed by the connective- tissue reticulum (see fig. 39). 
It has been already mentioned incidentally in Chapter I. that the reticulum is more 
marked in specimens which have been hardened in Muller’s fluid and osmic acid than 
in those which have been hardened in chromic acid (let the reader compare figs. 39 & 41). 
This reticulum has been seen by Schwalbe (72), who spoke of it as a network of canals, 
a layer of granular cell-substance being found between the membrana and the polygonal 
network ; he also found the nuclei not within the meshes of the network of canals, but 
lying over one of the meshes {loc. cit. fig. xiii.). 
It has been mentioned above that Ebstein (95) has figured the nuclei of these cells 
as spherical in form in animals killed during digestion. I have examined a great many 
dogs in various stages of digestion, hardening their stomachs in chromic acid, and, with 
very few exceptions, the nuclei have been found as flattened disks, lying at the bottom 
of the cells, as in fig. 38. Sometimes, it is true, the nuclei are seen to be spherical, as 
in figs. 39 & 40 ; but this never occurs over any considerable tract of the stomach. I 
can, however, confirm Ebstein’s statement that the cells are more granular and stain 
more readily during digestion than during inanition. In tissue which has been washed 
in one tenth per cent, chromic acid and immediately placed in alcohol, I have equally 
failed to find the nuclei as spheres in the cells of animals killed during digestion. 
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