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a IRevlcw of tbe 6olQi flDetbob.* 



By Oliver S. Strong. 



THE advent of the Golgi method in nerve histology has so 

 greatly enlarged our knowledge and altered our conceptions 

 of the structure of the nervous system in many respects, 

 and the method, or methods, itself has such well defined peculiar- 

 ities, that it has been thought that a general review of it from the 

 technical side would be of interest and perhaps of use, especially 

 in view of the very considerable number of investigators now 

 employing it. 



The review does not aim at any originality of treatment, but is 

 simply a compilation from available literature of its various modi- 

 fications and applications. It may be stated that it does not 

 include Golgi's arsenic-gold chloride method, nor even the applica- 

 tion of the bichromate-silver methods to the structure of medul- 

 lated nerve-fibres. 



It has seemed most appropriate to begin the review with a 

 translation of the technique of Golgi's methods as given by Golgi 

 himself, principally in his work, Studi sulla Jina aiiatoinia degli 

 organi centrali del sistetna nervoso^ pp. 181-208. The translation 

 is made, however, from the German edition of Golgi's works 

 (^" Untersuchu?tgen ilber dein feineren Bau des centrale7i und peri- 

 pherischeii Nervensy stents,^'' pp. 169 — 182, translated by R. Teus- 

 cher). Golgi's own account of the technique is still the most 

 complete, nor does it seem to be by any means universally under- 

 stood how completely Golgi worked it out, and how largely we owe 

 not only the discovery, but also the development of the method to 

 him. It is for these reasons as well as for the many valuable hints 

 contained therein that the translation of this rather extensive 

 account of Golgi's is here given. 



" The particular methods to which I owe my most noteworthy 

 success are the following : — (i) The method of black staining by 

 successively treating the pieces (of brain tissue) with bichromate 

 of potassium or ammonium and silver nitrate. (2) The method 

 of the successive action of a mixture of osmic acid and bichro- 



* From the Journal of Cojuparative Neurology. 



