STRUCTURE OF GOLGI 109 



idioplasm is situated on one side of the fixed Golgi elements, 

 these appearing either as platelets or batonettes (rodlets). A 

 secretory granule or vacuole may occur within the idioplasm, and 

 it has been suggested that the real situation of the osmiophilic 

 Golgi is as a sphere round the idioplasm with its vacuole. This 

 is probably incorrect, as it does not fully take into consideration 

 the plate-like form of Golgi apparatus unless the sphere is envisaged 

 as incomplete. It is doubtful whether this would form a stable 

 system, although it is not impossible. 



Associated with the true Golgi apparatus there appears to be a 

 vacuolar system primitively situated within the Golgi cortex, but 

 which may be outside it. This vacuome is probably a deuto- 

 plasmic inclusion, being incapable of independent duplication and 

 growth. (Voinov seems to think the vacuoles enlarge in Notonecta, 

 however.) The vacuome stains intravitally in neutral red, and is 

 watery and probably acid in nature. 



THE FUNCTION OF GOLGI APPARATUS 



It is in the direction of elucidating the problems connected with 

 the function of the Golgi apparatus that most progress has 

 been made during the last ten years. Although the apparatus 

 was discovered in the nerve cell a function was found first in the 

 animal sperm. This process culminates in the formation of the 

 acrosome or tip of the spermatozoon and was described by a 

 number of workers, among whom Gatenby and Bowen stand out. 



In the spermatid the scattered Golgi elements, with their 

 accompanying idioplasm, collect into a clump with the idioplasm 

 in the centre (idiosome) and the Golgi bodies on the outside 

 (cortex). This complex, which is not in connection with the 

 centrioles at this stage, is termed the acroblast, as from it is formed 

 the acrosome (Fig. 56). This acrosome is of one of two types — 

 vesicular or granular. The former is found in Mammalia, 

 Amphibia and Hemiptera. It is formed inside the acroblast in 

 the idioplasm and, as the complex is close to the nucleus and the 

 cortex appears to be incomplete on the side nearest the nucleus, 

 the acrosome projects out from the acroblast and touches the 

 nucleolar membrane. Usually inside the acrosome is found a 



