268 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FlSH AND FISHERIES. 



history thau thu migration of th« plasmatic ui.iss usually desoribefl. The pi-eaence 

 of mauy empty capsules' iu the sections would lemi weight to this view of the 

 expulsion of the contents of the spore, and in (ig. 4a I have represented a capsule' 

 with a single pole corpuscle, which appeared to bo iu the act of escaping through a 

 rent in the capsule. 



Filaments best seen in sections, stained witli Babes's anilin-water 

 safranin where they stain prominently yellow; length varying consid- 

 erably, many occurring curled up at the end as though only partly 

 unwound, measuring wheji fully projected 6 to 8 times the spore-breadth, 

 extending far into the surrounding tissues; sometimes dimly visible 

 through capsular wall; extruded parallel to the shorter (antero-poste- 

 rior) diameter of the spore. 



Sporoplasm varying considerably in size and shape, and sometimes 

 filling all the extra-capsular portion of the shell cavity; in this con- 

 dition presenting no evidence of segmentation. In other cases less 

 extensive, being sometimes very small and shruuken,^ the sporoplasm 

 then frequently showing a well-defined segmentation, the line of division 

 extending- through its middle [i. e., coinciding with the vertical plane]. 

 Each sporoplasm-half envelops, in the form of a well-defined crescent, 

 the corresponding capsule. Nonvacuolate (letter to author, 1893). 



The sporoplasm stains with Pfitzner's alcoholic safranin a light pink- 

 ish hue. appearing under a Leitz j\r in auilin-staiued sections, delicately 

 granular; no other structure discernible. Nucleus and evidence of 

 nuclear contents invariably absent. Ohlmacher adds: 



I could not even demonstrate the micrococci-] ike particles iu the plasmatic body, 

 as have been described by Lutz, or the safranophile particles of Biitschli. 



Micro-chemistry: Ohlmacher finds the sporoplasm constantly cyan- 

 ophilous, the capsules constantly erythrophilous. This occurs with 

 carbolic fuchsin and carbolic iodine green (Russell's method); the 

 capsules staining a brilliant red, the sporoplasm light green. The tint 

 of the sporoplasm (consequently also the degree of dichromophilism) 

 varies from violet to a well-defined green. This difference depciids in 

 large part on the developmental stage of the sporoplasm. Where large 

 and unsegmented and occupying a large part of the shell cavity the 

 green stain was less clearly defined; where more condensed and divided 

 into the 2 crescents closely applied to the capsules, the green was well 

 marked. A striking differentiation is produced by Pfitzner's alcoholic 

 safranin, followed by aqueous methyl blue, rapid washing in alcohol, 

 and clearing in xylol. The Biondi-Heidenhain triple stain and Wat- 

 ase's cyanin-chromatrop failed, a result attributed to noupenetration 

 of the shell by the stain. On the other hand, the success of fuchsiu- 

 iodine-green and safranin-methyl-blue seems, Ohlmacher says, to be 

 due solely to their more powerful staining pr()})erties, which permit them 

 to penetrate the somewhat resistant shell. 



This dichromopl'.ilism of thecap.sule and sporoplasm Ohlmacher com- 



' By this term he means the sjiore-shell. 

 *Due, I think, to absolute alcohol fixation. 



