BY J. T. WILSON AND C. J. MARTIN. 669 



expressed dictum as to the " nervous character " of the fibrils 

 traversing the shaft of the push-rod. 



One or two minor details suggested by the figure deserve notice. 

 The fibrils are shown as non-varicose. The apparent varicosity 

 of the fibrils especially in our gold-stained preparations turns out 

 to be due partly to minute sinuosities in the course of the fibrils* 

 and partly to the presence of intercellular cement substance 

 between the cells of the successive rows through which the fila- 

 ments pass towards the surface, and which has caused reduction 

 of the gold salts. One or two minor details suggested by the 

 same figure seem to deserve remark. 



The fibrils do not in it, nor in other of our Golgi specimens 

 appear to be varicose as we fcjrmerly represented them in our 

 semidiagl-ammatic illustrations and as they actually do appear in 

 the haematoxylin preparation of the isolated fibrils already 

 refei'red to as the subject of one of our photomicrographsf and as 

 they also appear very distinctly in our gold-stained preparations. 

 We have little doubt that the Golgi preparations indicate the 

 true features of the filaments themselves and prove them to be 

 quite smooth and sinuous, and that the varicosity as shown in 

 specimens prepared by other methods is due to the adhesion of 

 extraneous particles probably of intercellular cement. The regu- ■ 

 lai-ity of the arrangement of these particles upon the filaments is 

 doubtless due to their corresponding to the intervals between 

 the successive rows of cells traversed by the fibrils in their 

 course towards the surface. This view is borne out by the 

 fact that in some parts of gold-stained preparations where the 

 reduction was cruder and less precise than in others, the parallel 

 series of filaments were occasionally seen to be joined by a series 

 of dark, transverse lines, corresponding doubtless to the intervals 

 between the successive cell elements of the core, uniting the 

 apparently varicose points of adjacent fibrils and so giving rise to 



•These sinuosities cau indeed occasionally be recognised as such when 

 haematoxylin preparations are carefully examined. 



t Macleay Mem. Vol. loc. cit. fig. 12. 



