268 Phillips on a Comparative Study of the 



no reliability could be placed in stains for the differentiation 

 of cell constituents. He considered the staining reactions 

 to be wholly physical, and due to the power of a substance 

 to absorb the stain, though just what the physical proper- 

 ties were, as distinguished from chemical, which caused 

 this absorption, he did not state. It would seem that, if two 

 portions of a cell stained differently with the same stain, or 

 if the same portion stained differently at different times, 

 there certainly must be some difference, chemical or physi- 

 cal, which would cause the different reactions. If, then, 

 there be such a difference in the stainability of the cell parts, 

 it would scarcely seem proper to simply sweep all such reac- 

 tions aside as worthless. It makes little difference whether 

 the reactions be caused by chemical or physical processes, 

 so long as a difference in cell structure is shown. After dis- 

 carding all staining relations, Fischer proceeded to study 

 the cell contents of the Cyanophyceje and Bacteria. By 

 digestion in hydrofluoric acid he found that all of the cell 

 contents were dissolved except the chromatophores, which 

 were usually hollow and barrel-shaped or cylindrical, accord- 

 ing to the form of the cell. He could not make out any 

 pellicle of protoplasm surrounding the chromatophore, but 

 inferred that there was one from the fact that the granules 

 accumulated on the partition walls. These granules he 

 thought to have no significance as cell organs, rather they 

 acted as assimilative and reserve products, the nature of 

 which, whether albuminous or carbohydrate, it was impossi- 

 ble to determine. He maintained that "the ground mass of 

 the central body is nothing more or less than a main part of 

 the protoplast surrounded by the chromatophore in which the 

 assimilation products are imbedded. The central body was in 

 no way the prototype of a nucleus, and the cell had no organ 

 in any way like a nucleus, either phylogenetically or other- 

 wise. This central body might be surrounded by a very deli- 

 cate membrane that ran from partition wall to partition wall. 

 At the time of division, the granulations showed no charac- 

 teristic groupings and that which was taken by some to be 



