Abstract
This paper correlates the various aspects of the author's previous work on embryonic columnar epithelia and deals especially with the mechanical factors that determine the form of an epithelium. The origin of the terminal bars, the various forms the terminal bars assume, and the significance of the terminal bar net in maintaining the epithelial structure are discussed. The paper also gives detailed consideration to the elongation of columnar cells after division. When this change in shape cannot be attributed to crowding from without, it is suggested that a thrusting action of elongating spindle fibers is the internal force responsible. In either case elongation is influenced by the development of the terminal web limiting the free surface. Further observations on this structure, first described by the author in 1935, are presented. The terminal web, which is generally present in columnar epithelia, is a specialized part of fixed cytoplasm, condensed, and lying in the plane of the terminal bars. It disappears in mitosis, but its reappearance as the new cell elongates limits the area of the free end of the cell. Hence, the terminal web plays an important part in determining the form of columnar cells.