[HARRISON & KENNEDY] DISCOLOURATION OF CODFISH 123 



Symplastic Stage. — The red organism goes through a symplastic 

 stage. The symplasm may be seen in fresh preparations as well as in 

 those stained. Two kinds are noticeable, an amorphous mass, some- 

 times flaky and sometimes resembling a contoured mass, staining 

 poorly, or slightly. With Giemsa's stain we have noted hyaline 

 masses staining pink; contoured masses, of uneven density, at the 

 periphery thin and toward the centre thicker (Plate IV, Figs. 11 and 

 13), staining various shades of violet. More frequently the sym- 

 plastic mass is granular, the granules of varying size staining violet 

 (Giemsa) on a background of cytoplasm of a pink hue (Plate IV, 

 Figs. 12 and 17). 



These symplastic masses are formed by the pouring out and 

 melting together of aggregations of cells — ^the hyaline form probably 

 coming from evenly stained organisms, and the granular modification 

 from cells showing granular staining. 



The regeneration of cells seems to follow two different methods. 

 From the hyaline masses we have seen rod-shaped cells forming at 

 the edges and also in the interior, parts of the evenly stained pink 

 cytoplasm splitting off as cells; later a broken line, which stains a 

 deeper colour, appears at various places on the periphery of the rod, 

 subsequently becoming continuous and when this has formed the 

 cell contents stain evenly but a deeper red violet colour, later darker 

 violet granules appear. 



From the granular symplasm the granules or regenerative units 

 increase in size, becoming round, amoeboid or other approximately 

 monad shape, or stretch into rods. 



The task of obtaining good preparations was one of great difficulty 

 owing to the large amount of salt present in the culture media; the 

 necessity of spreading material in strong salt solutions instead of 

 water, and the effect that such material had on stains, and lastly the 

 poor staining capabilities of the organism. 



Diffuse nucleus. — -In a number of preparations stained with 

 Giemsa's solution we have been able to note the presence of a diffuse 

 nucleus. This occurred in two forms: One resembling that figured 

 by Biitschli, and consisting of a net work of fibrillar cytoplasm 

 staining pink, with chromatin granules (violet) at intersections. The 

 chromatin granules were around the periphery of the cell and in the 

 median line. The other form observed was somewhat similar, except 

 that in place of the central granules there was an axial filament of 

 chromatin, and the fibrillar net work was absent (Plate IV, Fig. 10, 

 a, b, c). When such cells broke up they gave rise to granular sym- 

 plasm. 



