THE GOLGl APPARATUS 645 



ably, until a comparatively large yolk sphere is formed. By the time the egg 

 is ready for fertiUsation it is full of such yolk spheres and contains numerous 

 free rodlets as well. The male germ cell which enters the egg brings no Golgi 

 elements with it, so that all those of the embryo are derived from the mother. 

 When the fertilised egg-cell begins to divide, the Golgi elements which are 

 scattered throughout the cytoplasm become shared out among the daughter 

 cells ; they undergo no division as do the chromosomes of the nucleus. Gatenby 

 found that this sharing out of the elements of the apparatus continued 

 throughout development, and that during intervals between cell division the 

 Golgi rodlets increased in number by fission (Fig. 2, L, M, N ; Fig. i, C). 



The mode of behaviour of the Golgi apparatus is not the same in all animals. 

 In some cases it does not appear to play any part in yolk-formation, but as 

 far as we know it is always present during development, and behaves as in 

 Limncsa, during early developmental stages. In Mammals, the male germ 

 cell carries with it a few elements of the apparatus which enter the egg at 

 fertilisation, but their subsequent fate is unlmown (7). 



The indefinite behaviour of the Golgi elements during cell division, first 

 pointed out by J. A. Murray (10), militates against the view that they play 

 any definite part in hereditary transmission. Gatenby has pointed out that 

 the same indefinite behaviour of the elements of the apparatus is characteristic 

 of the reduction divisions of the male germ cells, further emphasising the 

 improbability of the Golgi apparatus being concerned in heredity (8) (Fig. 2) . 



It is at periods of special activity of cells that the apparatus plays an 

 important part. In gland cells, where it is reticulate in form, several observers, 

 amongst them Golgi himself, have described the displacement and change 

 in form of the apparatus during functional activity. This has been observed 

 in glandular cells of the stomach, and in sebaceous and mammary glands. 

 In goblet cells of the intestine, Cajal found that when secretory activity 

 commenced, the apparatus increased in size, then broke up into fragments, 

 and on discharge of the secretion from the cells, some of the fragments passed 

 out with the secretion (i). 



Several researches have been carried out recently on the apparatus in 

 nerve cells. Penfield has found that decerebration and high section of the 

 spinal cord of Mammals had no effect upon the anterior horn cells of the cord. 

 Similarly tetanus produced no change, nor did strychnine poisoning (11). 

 Da Fano kept rats on a reduced diet, then examined the cells of the spinal 

 cord, but again there was nc difference apparent in the Golgi apparatus : 

 however, when rats were exposed to the cold, then the apparatus of the nerve 

 cells of the cord seemed to shrink up and contracted around the nucleus (2). 



Penfield cut the axone branch of nerve cells of the cord, with the result 

 that in a period of from four to seven days, this was followed by the spreading 

 out of the Golgi apparatus towards the periphery of the cell, and was succeeded 

 in some cases by a partial disappearance of a part of the apparatus. The same 

 investigator showed that on displacement of the apparatus towards the cell 

 wall, a system of canals could be observed around the nucleus. These 

 comprise the so-called " trophospongium " of Holmgren, which has been 

 erroneously regarded by some cytologists as the negative representation of 

 the Golgi apparatus (12) (Fig. 2, I, J, K). 



Da Fano has recently investigated the nature of the apparatus in cancer 

 cells (3) . He has found that it presents a characteristic appearance in different 

 growths. In some tumours it has the form of a thick network, in others it 

 is a very fine network, while in some cases it consists of irregularly scattered 

 rodlets (Fig. i, F, G, H). 



From this survey of some of "the researches that have been carried out on 

 the Golgi apparatus, it will be seen that this cell organ apparently plays an 

 important part in the mechanism of life. As Harper says, " the cell appears 



42 



