120 ZOOLOGY 



may be excretory in nature. These products are of a temporary 

 character, such as mucous, serous, Hpoid granules, yolk, acrosome, 

 Nissle granules, etc. The apparatus undergoes hypertrophy 

 during the process and is not transformed into the various products. 

 This feature is constant in all the foregoing examples, and is 

 the fundamental postulate for the so-called " Process theory of 

 action." 



So far no mention has been made concerning the function of 

 the Golgi apparatus in the female germ cells except the refer- 

 ence to yolk in the preceding paragraph. This is because the 

 evidence in this connection is more equivocal than that pre- 

 viously brought forward. The whole question of the formation of 

 the yolk will be considered in detail later, but the part played 

 by the Golgi apparatus will be briefly reviewed now. 



In 1920 Gatenby and Woodger reviewed the general position 

 as regards the formation of yolk (41). As regards the Golgi 

 apparatus the only positive evidence is found in Patella, where 

 the dictyosomes are in the form of rods on the surface of the yolk 

 spheres. Comparison with the process in Limncea led them to 

 suggest that probably the archoplasm (= idioplasm) became loaded 

 with lipins and fats, and thus metamorphosed into yolk. During 

 embryogeny it was supposed that these bodies yielded up their 

 nutritive material and so once more became protoplasmic inclu- 

 sions. Thus it will be seen that the idea that the Golgi apparatus 

 might play some part in the production of the deuteroplasmic yolk 

 spheres was entertained even at that time. No actual mention 

 of secretion occurs, and even in 1924 Brambell in a paper inspired 

 by Gatenby repeatedly speaks of " Golgi yolk " as yolk "formed 

 from the Golgi elements " (italics ours), and not as yolk produced 

 by the Golgi apparatus. This idea of the metamorphosis of a 

 protoplasmic inclusion into a deuteroplasmic one is recurrent 

 in the English literature concerning the formation of yolk. 

 Nath, for instance (93, etc.), describes one kind of yolk as being 

 derived from a direct metamorphosis of the Golgi apparatus. 

 Nath and others have published a series of papers during the last 

 five years all dealing with this aspect. A consideration of one by 

 Nath and Mohan in 1929 will illustrate his general attitude. The 



