692 
MR. J. N. LANGLEY ON THE HISTOLOGY AND 
the fresh state in one, two, and three days respectively, it is seen that the changes 
which take place in the gland-cells are first obvious in the posterior oxyntic region, 
and steadily progress towards the anterior region. No zones are at any time dis¬ 
tinctly formed, but the granules contained by the cells become fewer and less obvious; 
so that the posteriorly-placed oxyntic glands appear in the fresh state nearly as devoid 
of granules as the pyloric glands. The two gland-forms can be, however, still distin¬ 
guished ; they have a different general look. Compared with the pyloric glands, the 
oxyntic glands have a faint yellow tinge and almost oily appearance; sometimes, too, 
the rounded outline of their cells can be made out. 
The greatest change that I have observed was in a Snake examined sixty hours 
after feeding. The glands in the latter third of the oxyntic region showed scarcely any 
granules ; in the middle third the glands contained many less granules than normally; 
they contained, however, more and more in passing towards the anterior oxyntic 
region, where the glands were densely crowded with granules. That is, the changes 
increase in intensity in passing from the beginning to the end of the oxyntic region. 
This is very similar to the manner in which the glands of the Rabbit’s stomach are 
affected during digestion. 
In osmic acid specimens some other points can be made out: The glands become 
longer and narrower in passing from the beginning to the median portion of the 
stomach ; thence to the pyloric region they become shorter—at first gradually, then 
more rapidly. In the Snakes which I have examined the pyloric glands are s im ply 
mucous glands ; the sub-cubical cells which form the sole constituent of the pyloric 
glands in Newts and a partial constituent of the pyloric glands in Frogs are absent in 
the Snake. Partsch, however, found exactly the contrary : sub-cubical cells he 
observed, but no mucous cells. 
Osmic acid specimens of the gastric mucous membrane of a hungry animal show no 
great difference in the characters of the cells throughout the oxyntic gland region ; all 
contain granules fairly equally distributed throughout their substance. The granules 
vary in size ; the larger ones closely resemble those in the oesophageal glands of the 
Frog or in the anterior oxyntic glands of the Newt. The granules are, as a whole, 
largest in the most anterior oxyntic glands, and, generally speaking, the farther the 
glands are from the beginning of the stomach the smaller are the granules they 
contain. The cell-substance stains very slightly, but more in the posterior than in the 
anterior oxyntic glands. The necks of the glands, especially of those in the median 
gastric region, differ from the necks of the gastric glands in other animals ; sub-cubical 
cells are usually absent. 
When osmic acid specimens of a digesting stomach (sixty hours) are examined there 
is little or no change to be seen in the anterior portion; the granules are large and the 
cell-substance unstained (Plate 78, fig. 8). In passing towards the latter third of the 
gastric gland region certain changes become more and more obvious : the granules 
* Op. cit ., s. 200. 
