50 L. S. ROSS 
lines in the cytoplasm. Forty-five minutes after decapitation 
of the crayfish a cell was observed with delicate stained lines in 
the intracellular axone. The color was retained for only a 
relatively short time after discovery of the cell, but long enough 
for corroboration of the observation by one of my colleagues. 
Evidently the cytoplasm showing the lines was stained some 
time before the expiration of the forty-five minutes; how long 
before there are no means of knowing. Only one of two inter- 
pretations can be placed upon the observation; the appearance 
is due either to death coagulation or it is due to the presence of 
neurofibrillae in the living cell. Dahlgren (’15) found ‘‘some 
trace of chromophilic bodies to be seen; also of neurofibrils”’ in 
living (?) nerve cells in the electric lobe of Torpedo. 
Sections stained with 0.01 per cent aqueous solution of thionin 
following fixation in Heidenhain’s corrosive sublimate solution 
show not only the network about the nucleus, but also the fibrillae 
of the axone; but here the possibility of artefacts produced by the 
technic intrudes itself. 
The structure as indicated by silver impregnation appears 
very similar to that shown by the thionin staining. Some of 
my sections prepared by the method Boulé (’07) used for the 
earthworm give indication of the endocellular reticulum, although 
not with a degree of distinctness equal to that obtained by the 
use of thionin. Possibly a somewhat greater difference in 
intensity between the perinuclear zone and the region toward the 
periphery of the cell is shown by Boulé’s method than by Don- 
aggio’s thionin stain. The intracellular axone in the Boulé 
preparations may be blackened in a portion of its length, but 
unaffected in the remainder. Where blackened, the compact 
portion of the band shows no differentiation whatever into 
fibrillae, but appears as a dense black mass. In some sections 
the band is blackened in its course from the periphery of the cell 
body and in the near vicinity of the nucleus shades off into rows 
of brownish granulations that encircle the nucleus, but, as 
indicated, not as sharply defined as shown by the thionin stain. 
The preparations by Boulé’s method gave some detail, while 
those made by Ranson’s method were failures as there was only 
a diffuse browning of the entire cell. 
