Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2012
In 1917 I published an account (16) of the so-called pharyngeal gland-cells of earthworms, unevenly but intensely staining cells (whence the name “chromophil” which I gave to them) which form lobular masses on the pharynx, and smaller aggregations in other places in the anterior segments. I came to the conclusion that the cells were not, as was usually held, epithelial in origin—were not cells which had fallen out of the epithelial layer while still retaining their connection with the pharyngeal cavity by means of a long neck functioning as a ductule. On the contrary, they were, I believed, mesoblastic in origin, and congeneric with the peritoneum; and were devoid of ducts leading into the pharynx.