Standpunkt nehnien ferner f iir manche Fiille audi 

 Aschheim (2) iind Pappenheim (37) ein, wobei 

 sie jedoch in anderen Fallen die Polychromato- 

 philie fiir den Ausdiuck einer nocli niclit vollen- 

 deten Reife der Zelle erklaren. Im Gegensatz 

 dazu halten Heinz (23) und Troje (49) die Poly- 

 chromasie als Folge der Auflosung des Chroma- 

 tins im ZelUeib. 



"In meinem Falle treten ausgesprochen poly- 

 chromatophile Hamoglobinzellen, die primitiven 

 Erythroblasten in friihen Stadien normaler Em- 

 bryonalentwickelung auf ; in diesem Fall ist also 

 diese Erscheinung sicherlich das Symptom der 

 Jugendlichkeit der Zelle. Fiir das Blut kann 

 man vielleicht iiberhaupt den Satz aufstellen, 

 dass die Basophilie das typische Merkmal junger, 

 noch nicht differenzierter Zellformen ist." ' 



Cells of the mid-polychromatic erythrocyte 

 stage of development (figs. 13 and 14) are usu- 

 ally smaller than they are in the preceding stage. 

 The nucleus may be large or small in relation 

 to the total cell size, and the pattern of chromatin 

 condensation is intermediate between the two 

 extremes represented by the erythroblast and the 

 mature erythrocyte, in that there is considerable 

 condensation, yet there still remain numerous 

 open spaces in the linin network through which 

 the nonstaining nucleoplasm is exposed. The 

 cytosome in many cells is not entirely homoge- 

 neous, and vague traces of mitochondrial spaces 



= Translation: Since the young primitive erythroblasts that 

 have just appeared from the colorless elements still contam 

 very little hemoglobin, their protoplasm^ appears tmged a 

 mixed tone of blue and pink, after D-, Ea-, and G-colonng, 

 since it has so far lost just the least bit of its original baso- 

 philia. Hemoglobin-containing cells with protoplasm of a 

 similar reaction are known to be found in the blood m ditter- 

 ent animals and also in men in the mature body, under various 

 pathological conditions. In pathology these have the name 

 -polychromatophilic erythrocytes or erythroblasts. i he na- 

 ture of these so-called polychromatophilia has beeii conceived 

 of very differently by different authors. Ehrlich (15 and 161 

 viewed it as the result of anemic degeneration, in which the 

 erythrocytes let the blood pigment diffuse into the pla^ma; 

 a similar viewpoint is taken for many cases by Ascheim 2U) 

 and Pappenheim (37), who explain the polychromatophilia 

 even in other cases as the expression of a still uncompleted 

 maturity of the cells. On the other hand, Heinz (23) and 

 Troje (49) consider polychromasia as the result of the dissolu- 

 tion of the chromatin in the cell body. , .,. , , , . ., 

 In my case, pronounced polychromatophihc hemoglobin cells 

 appear in the early stages of normal embryonic development: 

 the primitive erythroblasts; thus in this case this phenomenon 

 is certainly the symptom of the younthfulness of the cell. 

 Perhaps one can establish the principle generally for the 

 blood, that basophilia is the typical sign of young, still un- 

 differentiated cell forms. 



The numbers in parentheses refer to references in Dantsclia- 

 koff's bibliography. "D-," "Ea-," and "G-" refer to Dominici, 

 Eosin-azure, and Giemsa stains. 



often remain. The characteristic by which this 

 stage is identified is the presence of a gray- 

 stained cytoplasm that may vary from bluish 

 gray to a slightly orange gray. 



The late polychromatic erythrocyte is the third 

 stage of the polychromatic series. The cyto- 

 plasm shows a definite orange tinge. In figures 

 15-18, which are examples of this stage, the 

 cytosome, both from circulating blood (fig. 3, 3 

 and 4) and from bone marrow (figs. 352-354), 

 is about as homogeneous as in the mature erythro- 

 cyte. Clumping of nuclear chromatin has pro- 

 gressed almost to that of the mature erythrocyte 

 but the nucleus itself is not as compressed later- 

 ally as it will be later. Even at this stage there 

 is evidence of the variability in nuclear form 

 found in the mature cell; the nucleus in figure 

 17 is deeply indented on one side. It may be 

 a stage leading to a binucleated cell but, as al- 

 ready stated, this is insufficient evidence that 

 amitosis is a common method of multiplication 

 for these cells. Figure 29, A and B. which clear- 

 ly shows separation of the nucleus into two parts, 

 was made from late polychromatic erythrocytes, 

 also. 



The cell shape in the late polychromatic eryth- 

 rocyte is approaching that of the mature 

 erythrocyte but, like the nucleus, is still less com- 

 pressed than it will be later. The slight angu- 

 larity of cells found in dried smears has no 

 biological significance; it is part of the tendency 

 toward a hexagonal form due to crowding on 

 the slide. As already mentioned, shape alone 

 is a poor criterion of cell age — some cells assume 

 an oval shape quite early during the process of 

 hemoglobin acquisition while others accumulate 

 their full complement of hemoglobin and still 

 retain the spherical cell and nuclear shape usu- 

 ally associated with a relatively undifferentiated 

 cell. Such a cell as figure 19 cannot be cata- 

 loged properly as a mature erythrocyte. It might 

 be labeled an orthochromatic erythrocyte, or with 

 equal justification a cell showing anisocytosis." 



= Another interpretation might be made from the observa- 

 tions of Shattuck (1928), who followed the changes in shape 

 of red cells under the action of lysins. He noted that chicken 

 cells lost their oval shape and became round. A similar 

 change from an oval to a round shape was noted by Nesterow 

 (1935) as an initial degeneration reaction when chicken 

 erythrocytes were injected intravenously into dogs and rabbits. 

 Therefore, it is at least possible that the round shape of an 

 erythrocyte in the chicken might, in some cases, indicate the 

 first stage in degeneration. 



26 



