Page:Structure and functions of the body; a hand-book of anatomy and physiology for nurses and others desiring a practical knowledge of the subject (IA structurefunctio00fiskrich).pdf/20

the intercellular substance, which was at some time produced by the cells.

Fig. 1.—Epithelium: 1, pavement epithelium; 2, columnar epithelium; 3, ciliated epithelium; 4, stratified epithelium.

In epithelial tissue there is little intercellular substance, the cells being close together and arranged generally as a skin or membrane covering external or internal surfaces. When there are several layers of cells, the deepest are columnar in shape and the others become more and more flattened and scale-like as they approach the surface, where they are gradually rubbed off and replaced by the growth of new cells from below. This stratified epithelium, as it is called, is found wherever a surface is exposed to friction, as in the skin and in the mucous membrane of the mouth, pharynx, and esophagus, and in that of the vagina and the neck of the uterus. In simple epithelium, where there is only a single layer of cells, the cells may be pavement or hexagonal, columnar, glandular, or ciliated, according to their different functions. The flat pavement cells occur where a very smooth surface is required, as in the heart, lungs, blood-vessels, serous cavities, etc. None of these surfaces communicate directly with the external surface of the body and the name endothelium is substituted for epithelium. The columnar form of cell in the intestine facilitates the passage of leucocytes between the cells. In glandular epithelium the cells vary according to the gland in which they occur, their protoplasm