690 
MR. J. N. LANGLEY ON THE HISTOLOGY AND 
regions a considerable amount is found. It will be remembered that in the oxyntic 
glands alone obvious granules occur in the fresh state ; hence, then, pepsin is found in 
quantity only where obvious granules occur. 
A definite weight of gastric mucous membrane taken from the posterior oxyntic 
region contains a somewhat greater quantity of pepsin than an equal weight of mucous 
membrane taken from the anterior oxyntic region. We have seen that in the latter 
the glands are shallower and are separated from one another by much more connective 
tissue than in the former, or that a definite weight of mucous membrane taken from 
the anterior region contains a less amount of granules than an equal weight taken from 
the posterior region. Hence probably the difference in the pepsin-content of the two 
parts. 
In the Newt as in the Frog and Toad a diminution in the cell-granules, such as 
occurs in fasting or during digestion, is accompanied by a diminution in the amount 
r of pepsin contained by a definite weight of mucous membrane. 
TRITON CRISTATUS. 
The gastric glands of Triton cristatus are in the resting state very like the resting 
gastric glands of Triton tceniatus. There is, however, much less difference between 
the glands found in the anterior and posterior oxyntic regions in the former than in 
the latter. The anterior oxyntic glands of Triton cristatus are in groups and consist 
of several tubes coming off from a single duct, but the granules contained by the cells 
are as a rule not much larger than those contained by the cells of the posterior oxyntic 
glands. Further, the digestive changes in the glands are much less marked in Triton 
cristatus than in Triton tceniatus. Even at the period of maximum change with worm- 
or sponge-feeding it is rarely that an outer non-granular zone occurs. In one or two 
glands, usually either at the beginning or at the end of the oxyntic region, the outer 
portion of the cells does not contain granules, but even then the line between the 
granular and'the non-granular zones is not a sharp one. Both in the fresh and in 
osmic acid specimens fewer granules are found towards the outer portion of the cells 
during digestion ; there is a diminution in the size of the cells and some increase in 
the diameter of the lumina. In the latter period of digestion these changes are more 
or less completely repaired. 
We have seen that during fasting a clear zone gradually appears in the oxyntic 
glands of Triton tceniatus , in the glands of Triton cristatus I have not seen a corre¬ 
sponding change under similar circumstances. 
The time of maximum change with sponge-feeding is in the animals I have observed 
about twenty hours. Osmic acid specimens then show that the cells are much smaller 
than normal; the cell-substance stains much darker; the granules in the cells are also 
fewer and smaller; the granules are most numerous in the inner portions of the cells 
but are seldom absent from the outer portion. The lumen is enlarged often con- 
