654 D. B. CASTEEL 



gration of the vesicles (figs. 17 and 18). These changes are 

 marked by the breaking of the walls of the vesicles or cylinders 

 (so that sections of these bodies are now sickle-shaped or thread- 

 like) and by their dissolution. As the vesicles degenerate the 

 cytoplasm in which they lie shows the presence of rounded 

 homogeneous globules or droplets (o.d.). The point of origin 

 and the position of these globules strongly suggest a causal rela- 

 tionship between their appearance and the disintegration of the 

 vesicular bodies. However, it can not be urged that any single 

 globule is formed directly from a particular vesicle, for the 

 globules are larger than the vesicles. The substance comprising 

 the globules is of an oily or fatty nature, if microchemical tests 

 may be relied upon, for the globules become blue when the cells 

 containing them are placed in a modified Lock's solution to 

 which is added brilliant cresyl blue in proportions of 1 : 50,000, 

 while other elements of the cell remain unstained. 



How shall the vesicular bodies be classified? Apparently they 

 are closely allied to true mitochondria, although they fail to 

 conform in all particulars to the criteria employed in identifying 

 typical mitochondria. They agree with mitochondria in that 

 (1) they are dissolved in acetic acid; (2) they are not unlike 

 mitochondria in form; (3) they show certain typical mitochon- 

 drial reactions to dyes. With Bensley's stain the vesicles take 

 the fuchsin but slightly, and the same is true of the violet of 

 Benda's stain. In the living cell the vesicles are but lightly 

 stained with janus green, but this is also true of the mitochon- 

 dria before they aggregate to form the mitochondrial ring, nor 

 are the true mitochondrial granules of the spermatogonia and 

 spermatocytes at all well differentiated with Benda's stain. As 

 has already been noted, the responses of mitochondria to micro- 

 chemical tests apparently differ at different periods in the life 

 of the cell which contains them. The granules which are un- 

 doubtedly mitochondria pass from a state of relative indiffer- 

 ence to certain supposedly specific stains (as crystal violet and 

 janus green) to a condition in which these stains are taken with 

 avidity. The vesicular bodies may be thought of as mitochon- 

 drial in nature but differing from the granules in this particular, 



