NOTES ON THE FORM AND FUNCTION OF THE GOLGI 

 APPARATUS IN STRIATED MUSCLE. 



ROBERT H. BOWEN, 

 DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. 



It is a curious, not to say remarkable, fact that among the 

 hundreds of papers published since 1898 on the morphology 

 and function of the Golgi apparatus and the mitochondria, 

 very few indeed have been seriously concerned with these cyto- 

 plasmic elements as they presumably occur in striated muscle 

 "cells." This undoubtedly means, not that the matter has been 

 overlooked, but that it has been looked over and found very 

 difficult of solution. The whole question of the structure of 

 striated muscle being still in a somewhat uncertain state, it is 

 not surprising that the morphology of its generalized cytoplasmic 

 components should likewise be unsettled. Indeed this could 

 be anticipated, since the extraordinary differentiation of muscle 

 fibers may well involve morphological modifications of the 

 Golgi apparatus and mitochondria of such a nature as to render 

 uncertain their immediate identification. Still it is clear that an 

 understanding of the morphological disposition of these cyto- 

 plasmic elements might throw much interesting light not only 

 upon their own mode of functioning but upon that of muscle 

 substance as well. 



The tendency in recent years, upon such infrequent occasions 

 as the matter has been mentioned, seems to have favored the 

 identification of the so-called Cajal-Fusari network l with the 

 customary Golgi apparatus of other tissues. The morphology 

 of this network, first described by Cajal and later by Fusari, 

 was subsequently studied in great detail by Yeratti ('02), - whose 



1 It should be carefully noted that the terms "network" and particularly 



cular apparatus" have been frequently used in discussing this matter in 



striated muscle without any intention of implying that the material thus denomi- 



s necessarily homologous with the true Golgi apparatus or network. 

 This paper contains a very complete bibliographical review of the whole 

 hich reference may be made for the papers of Cajal and Fusari. These 

 ly published for the most part in journals not readily accessible to 



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