The structure of the parotid glands of 22 animals, representing 7 mamma- lian orders, was briefly described and some histochemical characteristics of their cells were studied. The tissues were fixed in Helly's and Carnoy's fluids, em- bedded in paraffin and stained with McManus PAS method and Mucicarmine for mucous substance, methyl green-pyronin and gallocyanin for chromidial substance and toluidine blue for metachromasia. Millon's reagent was used for the identification of protein. In most of the material studied, the acinar cells with PAS positive granu- les were shown to be ?-metachromasia with toluidine blue. The staining reac- tions of these granules differed from that of typical-mucous cells in that the latter, although PAS positive, showed ?-instead of ?-metachromasia. In the acinar cells of rodents, men and mules, the chromidial substance was relatively abundant, while in carnivores and others it was negligible in amount. In still others mere traces were found. PAS positive substance was present on the surface or in the apical cytoplasm of the intercalary and salivary duct cells in many animals. It was not glycogen since it resisted diastase digestion. Its phy- siological signifieance awaits further elucidation. The intercalary duct of ham- ster contained PAS positive fine granules which could not be stained by muci- carmine and showed more intense Millon reaction than that of acinar cells. The salivary duct of moles had special epithelium which contained distinct spherical granules that stained pink with the PAS method.

Adult albino mice were starved for 66 to 120 hours and the liver was examined forphosphatases, glycogen and ribonucleic acid. Alkaline phosphatase was found to increasemoderately while acid phosphatase showed no significant change. Both glycogen andribonucleic acid disappeared completely. The periphery of the hepatic lobule often stainedmore deeply than the centre due mainly to the conspicuous staining of the cell borderand of the Kupffer cells. The duration of starvation had no infiuence on the amountof both alkaline and acid phosphatases. In the refeeding experiment, mice starved for 48 to 72 hours were refed and werekilled 11 to 72 hours after subjecting to normal diet. The liver cells contained even greateramount of glycogen than in control animals. The restoration of ribonucleic acid was onlypartial. Both alkaline and acid phosphatases showed variable activities in the refeedingliver. The liver cells usually swelled and became rarefied, the sinusoids were very in-conspicuous. The swelling and rarefation of liver cells were caused by the accumulationof glycogen during refeeding. Three days refeeding did not bring this histological pictureto that of the control liver.