Cited by J.N. Langley, 'On the Histology of the Mucous Salivary Glands, and on the Behaviour of their Mucous Constituents', Journal of Physiology 10 (6) (1889), pp. 433-576.
Tags: osmic acid
Description:

Explanatio nof Plate XXX (figs. 1-8):

'Fig. 1. Alveoli of fresh sub-maxillary gland of dog, irrigated with 5 p.c. NaCl., showing mucous granules streaming out of an alveolus (a).

(b) Bleb of swollen, transparent mucin with granules in it.

(c) Other alveoli with mucous granules.

(d) Demilune cells with smaller, fainter proteid granules. Magnified about 480 times.

Fig. 2. Alveolus of sub-maxillary gland of dog, showing the pseudonetwork which is sometimes seen a short time after a piece of gland has been mounted.

Fig. 3. Alveolus of orbital gland of cat, in 5 p.c. NaCl, slightly pressed, showing the limits of the cells as clear lines.

Fig. 4. Isolated mucous granules of the orbital gland of the dog.

(a) Swollen in 1 p.c. NaCl.

(b) In 5 p.c. NaCl, showing faint filament sometimes seen to join and connect the granules, probably in consequence of their having stuck together.

(c) Shrunken in 20 p.c. NaCl.

Fig. 5. Isolated cells from sub-maxillary gland of dog, a day after death.

(a) Cells in 5 p.c. NaCl; two of the cells are focussed to show the nuclei, the nucleus is often completely hidden by the granules.

(b) Cells isolated in 5 p,c. NaCl, and then irrigated with 1 p.c. HCI.

(c) Demilunes in 5 p.c. NaCl.

Fig. 6

(a) Mucous cells sub-maxillary gland of dog irrigated with water, showing different sized network in the cells according to the amount they swell up; the network is here represented as more distinct than it usually is on addition of water. Nuclei rather refractive and homogeneous in appearance.

(b) Mucous cell of sub-maxillary gland of dog, isolated in 5 p.c. NaCl, and then irrigated with 1 p.c. HCl, showing fat globules in the meshes of the network. 

(c) Mucous cell of sub-maxillary gland of cat, irrigated first with dilute ammonia, then with 1 p.c. HCI, showing bleb of transparent mucin issuing from the cell.

(d) Mucous cell of orbital gland of dog, two days after death. Isolated in 5 p.c. NaCl. and irrigated with 1 p.c. HCI, showing bulging of mucous substance between the bars of the network.

(e) Mucous cells from orbital gland of cat, one day after death. Isolated in 2 p.c. NaCl, a few granules only are left in the cells.

(f) Isolated nuclei of mucous cells of sub-maxillary gland of dog.

Fig. 7. Cells from orbital gland of dog left for three days in 2 p.c. chloral hydrate.

(a) Cell irrigated HNO3 5 p.c., showing wide-meshed inner network.

(b) Cell irrigated with water, showinig fine-meshed network on the surface of the cell.

Fig. 8. Ducts of sub-maxillary gland of the dog.

(a) Without addition of fluid the granules are not always so distinct as they are represented here, but may become more distinct on irrigation with 5 p.c. NaCl.

(b) Showing alteration which may take place a short time after the piece of gland has been mounted. Early stage of striation.

(c) Irrigation with water, granules swell up and give a vacuolated appearance to the duct cells.' (456-457)

 

Fig. 1 in text:

'On irrigating a slightly teased fragment of a fresh gland with NaCl 5 p.c., it is seen that the contents of the alveoli as they stream out inito the fluid, form first a clear bleb, closely beset with granules (cf. Fig. 1); then the bleb swells and the granules become arranged in lines parallel to the surface of the bleb.' (437)

 

Fig. 2 in text:

'Some of the alveoli usually undergo changes different from that described above. In some, the granules become less and less distinct, and the substance between them becomes more and more distinct, so that the cells appear at first sight to contain a network with small meshes, viz. 8 to 12 lumen to basemnent membrane (Fig. 2, Pl. XXX.). On closer examination the apparent network can here and there be seen to be simply the optical section of the small amouint of substance existing between the granules, but in most cases it is not sufficiently distinct to justify any conclusion with regard to it.' (435-436)

 

Fig. 4 in text:

'On continuing the irrigation with 5 p.c. NaCl, the groups and rows of granules are gradually washed away from the edge of the specimen... A delicate connecting filament can sometimes be observed between two granules (cf. Fig. 4 (b)) as they are being rolled over. Since no such connecting filament between the granules can be seen inside the cells, it probably indicates that the granules here and there stick together where they come in contact.' (438)

'In 20 p.c. and in stronger solutions of sodium chloride, sometimes also in weaker, the granules are apt to be elongated or irregular in shape instead of being spherical (cf. Fig. 4 (c)); they are more apt also to cling together in small groups; in some of these groups the separate granules may be barely distinguishable.' (438)

 

Figs. 5 and 7 in text:

'The outline of the cells on irrigation with dilute acids, is in optical section more or less obviously beaded (Fig. 5 (b) and Fig. 7 (a)); there are usually twelve to fifteen smrrall swellings in the length of the cell, in some cases the outline of the cell appears to be discontinuouis in optical section, the limiting layer of the cell looking as if it were a perforated membrane. Similar small swellings have been mentioned by Schiefferdecker as occurring in cells treated with Muller's fluid. Now and then, and especially after treatment with chloral hydrate, the beading can be followed into a small-meshed network in the limiting layer of the cell (Fig. 7 (b)).' (444)

 

Fig. 5 in text:

'A mucous cell isolated in 2 to 5 p.c. sodium chloride appears as a mass of highly refractive spherical granules held together by a barely visible cell-substance (cf. Fig. 5 (a)); it is more or less columnar, never pear-shaped or globular, as it is after isolation in chloral hydrate; it does not show a cell-process; the nucleus lies close to the basal end of the cell.' (439)

'Demilune cells isolated in salt solution are more or less distinctly granular, the granules being one-half to one-third the size of those in the mucous cells (Fig. 5 (c)). lhe cells are usually in groups of two or more, the cell-outlines are very indistinct and often not visible, they may however be brought out by adding acetic acid and ferrocyanide of potassium and by various other reagents.' (440)

'An isolated mucous cell on irrigation with one of the abovementioned reagents swells up, becoming pear-shaped or globular... As the granules disappear from the cells a network comes into view, and the cell-outlines become sharply contoured. In the isolated cells the network has wide meshes, the number of meshes being as a rule 4 to 6 in the length of the cell (Fig. 5 (b)); the meshes are not quite equal in size, and the fineness of the fibres and the size of the nodal points varies slightly with the strength and nature of the reagent. In cells which are not isolated, the meshes of the network are generally smaller and less distinct, there may be 9 to 12 in the length of the cell.

Fig. 5 (b) shows the changes produced in the isolated mucous cells, Fig. 5 (a) by the addition of 1 p.c. hydrochloric acid. A similar change is produced by many other reagents'. (443)

 

Figs. 6-7 in text:

'The scattered proteid particles spoken of above stain deeply with methylene blue and with most other colouring matters. A not inconsiderable number of them are spherical; in isolated cells-especially of the orbital gland of the dog treated with hydrochloric acid-similar small proteid granules are seen attached to or forming part of the network (Figs. 6 (d), 7 (a)).' (445)

 

Fig. 6 in text:

'In the glands of the dog I have generally found the granules numerous for two days after death; but in one or two observations on the orbital gland of the cat, whilst the cells isolated, immediately after death, in 5 p.c. NaCl were densely granular throughout, the cells isolated two days after death varied widely in granularity, some of them containing three or four granules only, scattered in the transparent mass of the cell; these cells thouah less angular than those in which the granules were preserved were not much swollen, but their outline was doubly contoured, differing thus from the cells in which the granules were for the most part unaltered (cf. Fig. 6 (e)).' (439-440)

'Notwithstanding the very considerable swelling of mucin which takes place in the isolated cells on irrigation with HCI 1 p.c., it is remarkable how seldom a plug of mucin is seen to project from the free end of the cell. I have only seen this in the fresh gland, when a piece has been irrigated first with dilute ammonia and then witlh hydrochloric acid (cf. Fig. 6 (c)).' (445-446)

'When a gland has been kept for one day to two days in NaCl 5 p.c. the cell-network and the limiting layer of the cell are not brought out so distinctly by acids. The limiting layer is the first to become indistinct; in this stage the cells of the orbital gland not infrequently show a network between the peripheral meshes of which the clear mucous substance of the cell bulges (Fig. 6 (d)).' (452)

 

Fig. 7 in text:

'Chloral hydrate 2 to 5 p.c. Irrigated with this, the mucous granules swell up and become very pale; the cells swell and the granules in them cannot be distinguished. This fluid is commonly used for obtaining isolated cells; when a small piece of gland is placed in it the outermost cells burst, and their contents form a ropy mass. This remains for several days, but is gradually changed into an irregular granular deposit. Isolated cells are best obtained in about three days; the cells are then much swollen, most show with greater or less distinctness a wide-meshed network in their interior (Fig. 7 (a)); it may be made still more distinct by irrigating the specimen with 1 p.c. osmic acid; sometimes the meshes near the nucleus are smaller and the bars of the network thicker than elsewhere. In some of the mucous cells generally those in which the mucin is most swollen, and the inner network indistinct - there is a very marked fine-meshed network in the limiting layer of the cell (Fig. 7 (b)); the meshes vary somewhat in size; they are usually five or six sided. In such cells the limiting layer of the cell, apart from the network, is extremely faint; here and there fibres run from this network to the wide-meshed internal network. I use the phrase network in the limiting layer of the cell simply as descriptive of the appearances under the microscope, I shall later discuss whether it really is a network, or whether it consists of ridges on the limiting layer caused by the pressure exercised by the granules as they swell. ' (450)

 

Fig. 8 in text:

'The ducts of the lobules in the fresh gland have a slightly yellowish tint, this is much more marked in the sub-maxillary than in the orbital gland. The outer and larger portion of the ducts, occasionally almost homogeneous, is usually finely and indistinctly granular (cf. Fig. 8 (a), Pl. XXX.). The striation which is so obvious after most methods of hardening is not seen in the fresh gland; but it usually becomes more or less apparent when the specimen is kept. The granules for a time become more obvious, then they swell, and as they do so, beconme paler, arranged in rows, and often elongated, at the same time the cellsubstance between them becomes more distinct; owing to these two changes the ducts acquire a striated appearance (cf. Fig. 8 (b)). Occasionally the duct cells, besides containing small fat globules chiefly in the neighbourhood of the nucleus, contain also large fat globules about the size of the nucleus; these are not uncommon in the submaxillary gland of the cat.' (436)

'The granules of the duct cells become larger and much paler, so that the ducts often look densely vacuolated, the cell-substance between the apparent vacuoles becomes very distinct (Fig. 8 (c)).' (445)