78 



INTRODUCTION TO CYTOLOGY 



are attributed to faulty preservation of the materials in and between the 

 vacuoles.* 



It will be observed that Parat holds the vacuoles to be the important 

 active element of the Golgi region, whereas the other 

 investigators regard them as results of an activity on 

 the part of the material about them. Decision on the 

 matter is scarcely warranted at present, but the fact 

 remains clear that the Golgi region of many gland cells 

 is intimately concerned in the function of secretion. 



This general conclusion is supported by studies on 

 oocytes and spermatids of animals. A number of 

 workers^ have associated the Golgi material with the 

 production of fatty yolk in odcytes. In the spermatid, 

 or cell which is to transform into a spermatozoon, the 

 Golgi material appears to form a definite body known as 

 the acrohlast; from this is differentiated and budded off 

 an acrosome (apical body), which becomes in part the 

 perforatorium of the spermatozoon.^'^ Bowen compares 

 the development of the acrosome with the formation of 

 secretion globules in goblet cells and inclines to the view 

 that it, too, is a secretion of the Golgi material with a 

 maSed rtpresenta- ^pecial role in fertilization. The topographical dis- 

 tion of two views tinctness of the acroblast and chondriosomes is opposed 

 of the^ecretogenous ^° ^^^ view that the latter are incorporated in the secre- 



region in a gland tlon (PolHster, 1930). 



apparatAs^^rnd^lS The fact that Golgi material occurs in cells with no 

 relation to the secre- pronounced secretory activity indicates that it is not 

 cording^°to'' Bown Concerned solely with secretion in the ordinary sense 

 and others. B, the (Cowdry, 19236). We may adopt the provisional view 

 (i^n^th°efr eaHi^er ^^^^ ^^ general the Golgi material, whatever its exact 

 phases, the vac- form may be, characterizes a cytoplasmic region in 

 lat^n to the^^^dH- which Certain synthetic processes occur, and that in 

 fuse lipoids" (more specialized gland cells we observe the results of a 

 eavi y s ipp e pj-Qnounced synthetic activity of a specific kind. 



Comparison with Plant Cells. — The tendency to 

 "homologize" structures in plants and animals has 



area) and "active 

 chondriome" (black 

 rods) of the secreto- 

 genous region, ac- 

 cording to Parat, 

 1928. (After 

 Bowen, 1929c?.) 



^ This interpretation of phenomena in gland cells is adversely 

 criticized by Gatenby (1929, 1930), Beams (1930o6), and Beams 

 and King (1932). Nath and Nangia (1931) distinguish Golgi 



bodies, vacuoles, and chondriosomes by their different colors in living oocytes of 



Ophiocephalus and Rita. See also Payne (1932). 



9 Hirschler (1913), Cattaneo (1914), Gatenby and Woodger (1920), Voinov (1925), 

 King (1926), Parat (1927), Ikeda (1928), Kater (1928c), Hibbard (1928), Nath and 

 collaborators (1928, 1929, 1931), Bhattacharya et nl. (1929, 1930). 



10 Bowen (1920, 19226, 19236, 1924a). See, further, Chap. XIV. 



