390 KING. [Vou XIX. 
to be composed of a series of minute granules; others of 
delicate linin threads. As the plasmosomes can still be found 
during synizesis it is probable that they play no part in the 
changes taking place in the chromatin. 
From the contraction figure shown in Fig. 25 there is 
evolved a long, apparently continuous, much convoluted 
spireme which is made up of a series of deeply staining chro- 
matin granules distributed on a linin thread (Fig. 26). In the 
meshes of this spireme there are several nucleoli of various 
sizes, and there are also from one to five irregularly shaped, 
apparently homogeneous nuclear masses which are distributed 
along the nuclear membrane. These masses all stain intensely 
black with iron hematoxylin as does also the spireme. If, 
however, preparations have been satisfactorily stained with 
safranin and gentian violet the spireme is deep blue, the very 
small nucleoli appear red, while the large nucleoli and the 
masses against the nuclear membrane are purple, thus indicat- 
ing that they are composite structures although they usually 
appear homogeneous at this time. 
From the stage shown in Fig. 21 to that of Fig. 26 the 
oocytes do not grow to any appreciable extent and the nuclei 
measure from 0.011-0.013 mm. in diameter. After synizesis 
there is a rapid increase in the amount of cytoplasm and in 
the size of the nucleus (Fig. 27). The chromatin spireme be- 
comes more evenly distributed throughout the nuclear space, 
and it is noticeably thicker than at the stage of Fig. 26. In 
the succeeding stage the spireme begins to split longitudinally 
(Fig. 28). As the sister portions of the spireme are only about 
one-half of the thickness of the spireme at the stage of Fig. 
27 it is evident that there is a true longitudinal division of the 
spireme at this time and not a folding together of chromatin 
filaments similar to that which occurs in the young odcytes of 
the rabbit according to the investigations of von Winiwarter 
(93). At the stage of Fig. 29 the greater part of the spireme 
has divided and many of the sister threads have separated a 
considerable distance. When the splitting of the spireme has 
been completed the sister threads lie parallel, for the most 
