CHANGES IN PANCREAS, PHOSPHORUS POISONING 239 



the reactions of liver cells into two types. The first is character- 

 ized by cytolysis and chondriolysis. The cells increase in size, 

 clear spaces appear in their cytoplasm, the mitochondria de- 

 crease in number and the nuclei change in appearance. In the 

 second there is a "homog^neisation protoplasmique" and a "chon- 

 driomegalie," the protoplasm staining diffusely with fuchsin, 

 the mitochondria . increasing in size, and the cells themselves 

 decreasing in volume. 



These investigators also showed that, when they were able to 

 increase the amount of mitochondrial substance in the liver 

 experimentally, the same liver, on chemical analysis, showed an 

 increase in the content of phospholipin. In this way they con- 

 nected up their histological with their chemical findings, a result 

 which might be expected in view of the evidence that the mito- 

 chondria ai-e themselves, at least in part, composed of phospholi- 

 pin. Three investigators, Regaud, Faure-Fremiet, and Lowschin, 

 working independently on mitochondria in mammals, inverte- 

 brates and plants, each came to the conclusion that they were 

 made up of a combination of lipoid and albumin. 



The possible significance of mitochondria in this connection 

 is brought home to us when we reflect upon their lipoid nature 

 and upon the increasing importance which investigators are now 

 inclined to attach to the role of lipoids in cell processes. This 

 point of view is aptly stated by Mathews ('16, p. 88) who regards 

 phospholipins as the most importance substances in living matter : 



For they are found in all cells, and it is undoubtedly their function 

 to produce, with cholesterol, the peculiar semifluid, semisolid state of 

 protoplasm. This physical substratum of phospholipin differs in 

 different cells and probably in the same type of cells in different animals, 

 but everywhere, from the lowest plants to the highly differentiated 

 brain cells of mammals and of man himself, it possesses certain funda- 

 mental chemical and physical properties. 



Workers in this field, however, have been slow to realize the 

 importance of the relation which may exist between the histolog- 

 ical study of mitochondria and the new analyses of the lipoidal 

 content of cells. 



The idea which underlies most of the modern work on mito- 

 chondria in pathological conditions is that they constitute a 



