61 
Metamorphosis of Axolotls 
testine undergoing transformation (phots. 6 and 7), the connective 
tissue forms low and wide folds owing to which the „villi tt whose 
length in the larval intestine attained 850 fa are now 340 fi in 
length at the utmost. In the epithelium we find fewer cup-cells than 
normally and very numerous degenerating cells. In many places 
the epithelium does not adhere to the connective tissue; between 
both tissues we remark blood-corpuscles (phot. 8). The blood-vessels 
are greater than in the larval intestine. In all tissues of the intes¬ 
tine, especially in the epithelium, the number of nuclei has increas¬ 
ed so that there are large spaces in which numerous nuclei lie 
close to each other, imbedded in small quantities of plasma. (See 
phot. 8). 
Photograph 6, representing the dissection of the duodenum of 
an axolotl fed on thyroidine much resembles photographs of the 
intestines of newts subjected to starvation, in Ruzicka’s paper. 
In both we remark the increase of connective tissue relatively to 
the quantity of the epithelium which initially undergoes degener¬ 
ation. Ruzicka’s phot. 3 represents the intestine of a newt sub¬ 
jected to total starvation for 4 months, our phot. 6 re¬ 
presents the intestine of an animal fed on meat and thyroid¬ 
ine six times during 14 davs. Feeding with extracts 
of thyroid gland has an influence analogous to that 
of total starvation but much more intense. 
The pancreas. 
The pancreas of axolotls fed on thyroidine is considerably smal¬ 
ler than that of normally fed individuals. This decrease is observ¬ 
able macroscopically. Among cvtological changes, I desire to not¬ 
ice changes of the plasma-nuclear ratio to the advantage of the 
nucleus in the cells of the animals. In fig. 2 b of tho text we see 
glandular cells of the larval pancreas, in fig. 2 a analogous cells 
belonging to the transformed specimen. The height of cells of a norm¬ 
ally fed axolotl attains on the average 40 fa in the pancreas of 
the „thyroidine animal“ that height does not exceed 30 fa, the size 
of the nuclei, however, has not varied. 
The decrease of the plasmatic relatively to the nuclear territory 
may be ascertained not only in pancreatic cells, but in all tissues 
of animals fed on thyroidine. A comparison of fig. 7, representing 
