209 



same iorm as lubcrclc l)acilli and absorbed tlie ordinary 

 bacterial stains. \\ hen 1 stained these with methylene blue, 

 thinking they were genuine bacteria, they al)sorbed the 

 slain readily, often a little irregularly, somewhat similarly 

 to that of bac. diphteria, sliowing granules and cross-stria- 

 tion. I was unable to observe at that time if these bacilli- 

 looking rods were able to multiply independently ')f the 

 cells. 



In this connection it must be mentioned here, that W a 1- 

 1 i n 50^' claimed quite recc^ntly to have cultivated the mito- 

 chondria in a special culture medium independently of the 

 cells. If this be true, the cell is no longer the elementally 

 organism of the bod}^, consequently the A 1 1 m a n n theorj^ 

 is proved. 



According to S m i t h, he observed in the cultures of 

 the retina] pigment cells, cultivated in Locke-Lewis so- 

 lution that these free granules underwent Brownian mo- 

 tion. Each of the cultures observed contained also a certain 

 number of blood cells carried over with the explant. The 

 red blood cells (nucleated) showed no tendencj' to take up 

 the loose granules. The clasmotocytes did it so readily that 

 the\^ often became quite black with granules. Some of the 

 connective tissue cells also took up the pigment — but 

 not so readily as the clasmotocytes. This is a fact which 

 is rather important to know because of the precautions to 

 be taken when further studies are to be undertaken on the 

 question of pigment formation. 1 myself have observed that 

 the epithelium from the iris produced pigment, but only 

 when the cells were allowed to remain in the same culture 

 medium for more than 3 — 4 days. In the ordinal'}^ cultures, 

 transferred everj^ second day, no pigment formation was 

 observed. Recently E b el ing i*^-^) gave a report of an 18 

 months old strain of iris epithelium in which report he 

 claimed that the strain still produces masses of pigment. 

 One has to be extremely careful in the conclusion that pig- 

 ment formation actually takes place, when we consider the 



14 



