On the ultimate secreting structure, and on the laws of its function / by John Goodsir.

  • Goodsir, John, 1814-1867.
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the ultimate secreting structure, and on the laws of its function / by John Goodsir. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    on account of the pressure of the surrounding parts, or that they are old vesicles in a state of atrophy after the expulsion of their contents. Having now described the changes which are constantly taking place in the testicle of this shark when the organ is in a state of functional activity, I must de- fer till a future occasion an account of similar changes which occur in the paren- chyma of an order of glands, of which the one already described may be consi- dered as a type. I may state, however, that I have ascertained the following ge- neral facts in reference to glands of this order :— ls£, The glandular parenchyma is in a constant state of change, passing through stages of development, maturity, and atrophy. 2d, This state of change is contemporaneous with, and proportional to, the formation of the secretion, being rapid when the latter is profuse, and vice versa. 3d, There are not, as has hitherto been supposed, two vital processes going on at the same time in the gland, growth and secretion, but only one, viz. growth. The only difference between this kind of growth and that which occurs in other organs being, that a portion of the product is from the anatomical condition of the part thrown out of the system. 4tk, The vital formative process which goes on in a gland, is regulated by the anatomical laws of other primitive cellular parts. 5th, An acinus is at first a single nucleated cell. From the nucleus of this cell others are produced. From these, again, others arise in the same manner. The parent cell, however, does not dissolve away, but remains as a covering to the whole mass, and is appended to the extremity of the duct. Its cavity, therefore, as a consequence of its mode of development, has no communication with the duct. The original parent cell now begins to dissolve away, or to burst into the duct at a period when its contents have attained their full maturity. This period varies in different glands, according to a law or laws impressed upon each of them. 6th, In the gland there are a number of points from which acini are deve- loped, as from so many centres. These I denominate the germinal spots of the gland. 1th, The secretion of a gland is not the product of the parent cell of the acinus, but of its included mass of cells. The parent cell or vesicle may be de- nominated the primary cell; its included nucleated cells, after they have be- come primary secreting cells, may be denominated secondary cells of the acinus. 8th, The matter which passes off by a duct of a gland may be, 1st, A true secretion, that is, matter formed in the primary secreting cell cavities; or, 2d, A mixture of a fluid formed in these cell cavities with the developed or undeveloped nuclei of the cells themselves; and, 3d, It may be a number of secondary cells passing out entire. N If a portion of the liver of Carcinus Manas is carefully examined, it is ob- served that each of the follicles of which it consists presents the following struc-