MITOCHONDRIA IN VERTEBRATE NERVE CELLS 6 



He claimed that they were mitochondria on account of their 

 morphology. He did not specify either the tissue or the animal 

 selected, but I gather from a second paper ('10, p. 41) that it 

 was the sciatic nerve of a guinea pig which he used. In this 

 second paper he employed an osmic bichromate mixture (pre- 

 sumably that of Altmann) and succeeded in staining bodies of 

 somewhat different form and cytoplasmic distribution which, 

 to my mind, resemble mitochondria much more closely. 



Laignel-Lavastine and Victor Jonnesco ('11, p. 699) observed 

 granules, rods and rows of granules in the Purkinje cells of the 

 cerebellum. The technique consisted of fixation in 12 per cent 

 formalin, followed by treatment with Weigert's neuroglia mor- 

 dant, staining with hematoxylin and by the methods of Altmann 

 and Benda. They employed, in addition, Regaud's formol-bi- 

 chromate-hematoxylin technique and concluded that the struc- 

 tures thus revealed were mitochondria. 



Lejyus 



Levi ('96, p. 3) studied granules which he called 'fucsinofili 

 (rossi)' in spinal ganglion cells by means of Galleotti's modifica- 

 tion of Altmann's method, which consists of using methyl green 

 as a differentiator in place of picric acid. He observed rod- 

 like bodies which took the anilin fuchsin deeply and could be 

 distinguished with ease from the green colored Nissl bodies. 

 These structures occurred in the axone hillock where the Nissl 

 substance is absent. Their staining reactions, form and dis- 

 tribution are sufficient basis on which to conclude that they 

 are mitochondria. 



Held ('97 a, p. 293) observed bodies, which he called neuro- 

 somes, in spinal ganglion cells (plate 11, figs. 1 and 2) and in 

 Purkinje cells (plate 11, figs. 7-9). In a second contribution 

 ('97 b, p. 307) he records the observation of similar bodies in 

 the anterior horn cells of the lumbar region of the spinal cord 

 treated by an iron hematoxylin method devised by himself (plate 

 12, fig. 7). I have already shown ('12, p. 497) that these bodies 

 are mitochondria. 



