4 E. V. COWDRY 



Nageotte ('09 b, p. 825) applied the Altmann method, the 

 Benda method and iron hem.atoxyUn as advocated by Meves 

 to the nervous system. By means of all three he demonstrated 

 bodies in anterior horn cells, Purkinje cells, neuroglia cells and 

 ependjanal cells which he believed to be mitochondria on the 

 basis of their characteristic morphology and distribution, 



Schirokogoroff ('13, p. 522) observed structures which he con- 

 cluded to be mitochondria on account of their filamentous and 

 rod-like shape, cytoplasmic distribution and independence of the 

 Nissl bodies, in spinal ganglion cells, in the cells of the spinal 

 cord, medulla, brain and retina by fixation in Regaud's fluid and 

 staining according to the directions of Altmann, Heidenhain 

 and Benda. 



I have confirmed these observations by making preparations 

 of mitochondria in Purkinje cells by Bensley's anilin fuchsin 

 methyl green method. 



Felis 



Altmann ('90, p. 52) described and figured granules (bioblasts) 

 in nerve cells by means of his well-known method of technique. 

 An analysis of his descriptions and figures shows that some of 

 these bodies are mitochondria. In plate 11, figure 3 they are 

 illustrated, stained brilliantly with anilin fuchsin after fixation 

 in his osmic acid mixture, in the Purkinje cells of the cerebellum 

 (p. 52). They occur in the form of granules which tend to be 

 arranged in rows and they are present in the axone as well as 

 in the dendrites, which excludes the possibility of confusion with 

 the Nissl substance. His figure (plate 13, fig. 1) and his de- 

 scription (p. 53) of granules in the cells of the granule layer of 

 the cerebellum are not sufficiently precise to justify the identifi- 

 cation of the bodies as mitochondria; but his illustrations (plate 

 14, figs. 1-2) of rod-like and filamentous structures in the wall 

 of the cerebral vesicle and neural tube of a cat embryo undoubt- 

 edly relate to mitochondria. 



Lobenhoffer ('06, p. 491) found granules and rods, similar to 

 those described by Altmann, in the cells of the spinal cord, brain 

 and retina by Schridde's modification of Altmann's technique. 



