PHYSIOLOGY OP PEPSIN-FORMING GLANDS. 
691 
siderably. Of the pyloric glands little need be said ; like the pyloric glands of Triton 
tceniatus, they do not contain any definite mucous cells. 
Pepsin-content of the gastric glands .—What has been said (p. 689) above on the 
pepsin-content of the gastric mucous membrane of Triton tceniatus holds also for that 
of Triton cristatus, with one or two slight modifications. 
The difference in the pepsin-content of the anterior and posterior oxyntic regions is 
greater in the large than in the small Newt. This is, as before, in correspondence with 
the relative amount of granules contained by the two parts. It will be remembered 
that in Triton tceniatus the granules are considerably larger in the anterior than in the 
posterior oxyntic glands, and that in Triton cristatus the difference in the size of the 
granules in the two regions is only slight. The less frequency of the glands in the 
anterior region is, then, more compensated in the small than in the large Newt. 
We have seen that there is less disappearance of granules during digestion in Triton 
tceniatus than in Triton cristatus; we find also that in the latter there is a less difference 
in pepsin-content in hunger in digestion than in the former. 
COLUBER NATRIX. 
Histology op the Gastric Glands in Hunger and Digestion. 
The end of the oesophagus and the beginning of the stomach can be readily distin¬ 
guished ; in passing from one to the other the mucous membrane becomes suddenly 
thicker and more opaque ; the junction line of the two is not a circle, but an oval, the 
glands occurring first on the ventral side of the alimentary canal. 
Tiie epithelium of the oesophagus near the stomach consists of long and unusually 
thin cylindrical cells, which have at their free ends suffered some amount of mucous 
metamorphosis. Partsch* described the epithelium near the stomach as consisting 
of ciliated and goblet cells ; I have not observed either of these. There are no proper 
oesophageal glands ; there are some few clippings down of the surface epithelium, 
but the cells do not markedly change in character. 
The most anterior glands are, as in the Newt, separated by more connective tissue 
than are those in the remainder of the stomach. They are arranged in groups, and 
several tubes are connected with each neck ; the tubes, moreover, usually divide in 
their course. In passing towards the pylorus the glands consist of a smaller number 
of tubes, but remain, as a rule, complex glands. 
In the fresh state all the oxyntic glands are densely granular, and little difference is 
to be seen in them except that the most anterior are larger in cross section. The pyloric 
glands are transparent and non-granular; the intermediate region is comparatively 
large. 
If three Snakes are fed each with a Frog, and the gastric glands are examined in 
* Op. cit. 
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