CYTOPLASMIC STRUCTURES IN THE SEMINAL EPITHELIUM OF THE OPOSSUM. 73 



THE APPARATUS OF GOLGI. 



The entire literature concerning the apparatus of Golgi, up to the spring of 

 1914, was reviewed by me at the meeting of the Anatomische Gesellschaft in Inns- 

 bruck. Recent contributions to the subject have been made by Addison (1910), 

 Basile (1914), Birck (1914), de Castro (1916), Cowdry (1916), Deineka (1914), 

 Hortega (1914), Monti (1915), Pensa (1915), Pappenheimer (1916), 1 Ramon y 

 Cajal (1914), Sanchez (1916), and Speciale (1914). 2 The most interesting points 

 in these contributions will be reported at the end of this chapter. For the previous 

 literature I take the liberty of referring the reader to my review and will confine 

 myself at this time to recalling the observations of Sjovall (1906), Perroncito (1910), 

 and Weigl (1912), which are closely connected with my subject. 



By means of a special method Sjovall brought into evidence a number of rods 

 at the periphery of the idiozome, in the spermatocytes of the mouse. In the sper- 

 matids the same method stains that part of the idiozome which is not used in the 

 formation of the headcap and which is finally eliminated. 



Perroncito was the first to apply the silver impregnation (Golgi's method with 

 acidum arsem'osum) to the testicle. In the spermatogonia of the rabbit he found, 

 at one pole of the nucleus, a typical reticular apparatus. In the spermatocytes the 

 apparatus is somewhat smaller and sometimes irregular, inasmuch as from the 

 reticulum a long process may be sent out into the cell. As to its behavior during 

 mitosis, Perroncito does not express himself definitely, although he thinks that 

 there are some indications of a process similar to that which he finds in the sperma- 

 tocytes of Paludina (dyctiocinesis). In the spermatids the reticulum is even 

 smaller than in the spermatocytes. What becomes of it he could not ascertain, 

 but is inclined to believe that one part of it is eliminated, while the rest remains 

 in the spermatozoon. 



Weigl (1912) studied the ripe spermatozoon in the guinea-pig by means of 

 Golgi's, Ramon y Cajal's, and Kopsch's methods. In the protoplasmic sheath 

 of the collar he found some rods and granules, which he is inclined to consider as 

 an apparatus of Golgi. He wonders whether the apparatus is carried by the sper- 

 matozoon into the egg and has, perhaps, something to do with the formation of the 

 apparatus in the embryonic cells. 



In the spermatogonia of the opossum I find very often two kinds of bodies 

 impregnated by Ramon y Cajal's method (fig. 26). There are first a number of 

 granules which resemble very much the mitochondria of these cells. There is, 

 further, a much more voluminous body flattened against one pole of the nucleus. 

 The central part of this body is formed by a light substance and its periphery is 



1 While Pappenheimer felt the necessity for "collating the widely scattered and rather inaccessible literature," he merely 

 reproduces the data collected by me up to 1914 and gives only an incomplete account of the recent papers. 



2 Voivov (1916) should probably be added to this list. He describes, in the spermatocytes of Gryllotalpa, a body which 

 is stainable by the chondriosomal methods and which can also be impregnated by the silver methods. Single in the young 

 spermatocytes, it later separates into four parts which come to rest against the nucleus. During the mitoses of maturation 

 these bodies are equally segregated between the daughter-cells, so that each spermatid gets one of them. This body is elimi- 

 nated at the end of the spermiogenesis. 



There is undoubtedly a striking resemblance between this body on one side, and Platner's "Ncbeukcrnstabchen" and 

 Perroncito's "dyctiosomes" on the other. 



