410 KING. [VoL. XIX. 
the spireme, and they cannot be followed since the large masses 
stain very intensely and uniformly at this time. When the 
large compound-nucleoli resolve (Figs. 35-38) they liberate, 
with the secondary compound-nucleoli, many more of the 
rounded nucleoli, which I have called plasmosomes, than were 
found in the nucleus previous to synizesis. It is evident, there- 
fore, that plasmosomes are being formed in the nucleus during 
early post-synizesis stages (Figs. 26-34). Since these nucleoli 
are formed only in the midst of oxychromatin granules it 
seems probable that the oxychromatin is concerned in some 
way with their formation; but the number and size of these 
bodies and the fact that they invariably stain differently from 
the chromatin seems to preclude the possibility that they are 
derived from chromatin substance as Flemming (30), van 
Bambeke (5), Macallum (65), Hertwig (43), Obst (7), 
Schockaert (79), Carnoy and Lebrun, Fick (29), and many 
others have maintained. The part played by the oxychromatin 
in the formation of the plasmosomes is obscured. There is 
no apparent decrease in the amount of this substance associ- 
ated with an increase in the number and size of the plasmo- 
somes during the early development of the odcyte, and at the 
time that the oxychromatin filaments disintegrate the nucleus 
apparently contains its maximum number of plasmosomes 
(Fig. 48). 
The plasmosomes seem to be of a plastic, semi-fluid consist- 
ency; they appear homogeneous until they begin to disinte- 
_ grate, and in some instances they seem to be capable of in- 
creasing in size and of budding off portions of their substance. 
Judging from the appearance and behavior of these bodies and 
from the fact that their formation is associated with the rapid 
growth of the cell and with the formation of vitelline bodies 
in the cytoplasm, it seems probable that they are products of 
nuclear metabolism which are possibly depositors of nutritive 
substance that are to be used at a later period in the history 
of the cell. This is substantially the view advocated by Kor- 
schelt (56) and by Rhumbler (75). Montgomery (70-71) 
is one of the few investigators who believes that the nucleoli 
are of extranuclear origin. He states that in the egg of 
