248 W. J. M. SCOTT 



have not seen their stage of ''homogeneisation protoplasniique" 

 in which the mitochondria are supposed to go into solution and 

 the whole cell to stain intensely with acid dyes. Briefly I find 

 that the mitochondria lose their filamentous or rodlike outlines, 

 become spherical and progressively lose their staining reactions 

 so that they finally are not seen at all or merely as shadowy 

 structures. There is also, as is to be expected, a very pronounced 

 fatty infiltration. The alterations in the kidney are those of a 

 typical cloudy swelling in which the mitochondrial changes 

 have been carefully described, under the heading of Altmann's 

 granules by several authors since Lubarsch's original publication. 

 The cells of the central nervous system show no outspoken 

 changes in their mitochondrial content. Finally it must be 

 noted that the pancreas alone showed agglutination and fusion 

 of mitochondria and that no tendency of this sort was observed 

 in any other tissue. 



DISCUSSION 



The points of chief interest in this work are (1) the immedi- 

 ate loss of the bleb-like swellings on the mitochondria as the 

 first evidence of pathological change, (2) the phenomenon of 

 agglutination as a type of mitochondrial reaction and (3) the 

 source of the lipoid droplets. 



The swellings in the course of the mitochondrial filaments are 

 considered by many investigators to be the precursors of secre- 

 tion. The crucial point is the similarity or the dissimilarity 

 between the mitochondria, these blebs and the zymogen granules. 

 Key ('16, p. 216) is opposed to this view since he finds that, on 

 increasing the secretorv^ activity of the cell, through the adminis- 

 tration of secretion and pilocarpin, the mitochondria show no 

 change indicative of participation in the formation of zymogen. 

 Moreover Cowdry ('16 b) has been able to stain the blebs in 

 quite a different way from the zymogen granules as well as from 

 the remainder of the mitochondrial filaments. He fixed mouse 

 pancreas by injection of neutral formalin-bichromate through 

 the blood vessels. The tissue was then mordanted in bichromate 

 and embedded in the usual wav. Sections stained with iron 



