Macroscopical and microscopical observations were made on the oviducts of the Rhode Island Red, White Leghorn and quail, with special reference to porphyrin pigments. The results obtained are summarized as follows.
Macroscopically, the mucous membrane of the uterus in each bird was colored in various brown and fluoresced red to pink. The brightness of fluorescences was related with the depth of the colorations, and they were distinct in the quail uteri, showing dark brown coloration and red fluorescence, and were moderate, showing light brown and pinkish fluorescence, in the Rhode Island Red and White Leghorn uteri.
In frozen sections, distinct fluorescence and collected brown pigment granules were observed in the mucous membrane of the uterus in some cases of the quails. In the uteri of the others, weak fluorescences were observed, but the pigment granule was unobservable.
Through the careful searching in the paraffin sections, the pigment granules were revealed in the mucous epithelium of the quail and Rhode Island Red uteri. Neither the fluorescence nor the pigment granule was found in the uterine gland in
each material.
From these findings, it was concluded that fluorescent porphyrin pigments were distributed in the mucous epithelium of the uterus in the quail, as well as the Rhode Island Red and the White Leghorn, although "pigment granule" was invisible in the sections of the White Leghorn uteri.