OBSERVATIONS ON THE GASTRIC MUCOSA OF REPTILIA

¹ The Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, Oxford, and the John Curtin School of Medical Research, Canberra, Australia

1. Histological and experimental observations were made on the gastric secretion of the Australian lizards Tiliqua nigro-lutea and Tachysaurus rugosus, and on the tortoise Testudo grca. In Tiliqua nigro-lutea a permanent fistula with an indwelling cannula was inserted into the stomach for the collection of gastric juice from the unanæsthetized animal.

2. Histologically, the gastric gland cells of these animals contain granules that resemble mammalian pepsinogen granules, but there is no cell in the glands that can be identified with the mammalian parietal cell.

3. The effects of food, of drugs and of vagal stimulation on the secretion of gastric juice were observed. In spite of histological differences from the mammalian stomach, the stomach in these three species produces a gastric juice that in essentials resembles that of mammals.

Note:

The authors wish to thank Professor A. H. Ennor, Mr. W. K. Whitten and Dr. N. G. Heatley for carrying out the biochemical estimations, Dr. G. B. Mackaness for providing some of the histological material, Mr. J. Kent for technical assistance, Mr. D. Jerrome for preparing the histological specimens, Mr. B. H. Glass for the photomicrographs, and Miss J. Sampson for drawing fig. 2.

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