Cytology and Movements of the Cyanophycece. 251 



their identity with the cyanophycin granules or "schleim- 

 kugehi" of other authors, and with Nadson considered them 

 to consist of chromatin. This view was further strength- 

 ened when later (9) he found these granules in the cyto- 

 plasm of other organisms as Diatoms, Flagellates, etc., 

 where they have an undoubted chromatin nature. He also 

 demonstrated the "schleimkugeln" of Schmitz in great 

 abundance along the partition walls of Oscillaria. They 

 were stained by eosin, but were not affected by h?ematoxylin. 

 In this respect he contradicted Zacharias (91) w-ho was able 

 to demonstrate them only by the use of hrematoxylin. If 

 Oscillaria was subjected to artificial gastric digestion, the 

 peripheral layer was dissolved out completely or nearly so, 

 but the "central body" remained and appeared more like a 

 nucleus than ever, retaining its power of staining wath 

 hsematoxylin. Micro-chemically, he found the "schleim- 

 kugeln" to contain much iron, and glycogen seemed to be 

 the form of the reserve food. From these observations, 

 Biitschli based a strong argument for the nuclear character 

 of the "central body," which he held to divide by direct 

 division. 



In the following year Fischer (26) attacked this view, 

 claiming that Biitschli 's methods of fixation w^ere faulty and 

 caused plasmolysis, thus forming an artifact in the cell which 

 was mistaken for a definite peripheral layer or chromato- 

 phore. Fischer's observations were based upon the study 

 of an unspecified species of Oscillaria and of Bacteria. In 

 these, by methods similar to those used by Biitschli, he got 

 a plasmolysis w^hich left strands of protoplasm attached to 

 the cell wall and such, he thought, Biitschli, had mistaken 

 for a w^eb structure in the so-called chromatophore. He did 

 not consider the "central body" as described by Biitschli to 

 be nuclear in its affinities, but rather that it was the main 

 mass of the shrunken protoplast. He affirmed that a nucleus 

 was present, but that it was to be looked for within the cen- 

 tral mass of the protoplasm which Biitschli termed the "cen- 



