268 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
history than the migration of the plasmatic mass usually described. The preéseiice 
of many empty capsules! in the sections would lend weight to this view of the 
expulsion of the contents of the spore, and in fig. 4a I have represented a. capsule! 
with a single pole corpuscle, which appeared to be in the act of escaping through a 
rent in the capsule. 
Filaments best seen in sections, stained with Babes’s anilin-water 
safranin where they stain prominently yellow; length varying consid- 
erably, many occurring curled up at the end as though only partly 
unwound, measuring when fully projected 6 to 8 times the spore-breadth, 
extending far into the surrounding tissues; sometimes dimly visible 
through capsular wall; extruded parallel to the shorter (antero-poste- 
rior) diameter of the spore. 
Sporoplasm varying considerably in size and shape, and sometimes 
filling all the extra-capsular portion of the shell cavity; in this con- 
dition presenting no evidence of segmentation. In other cases less 
extensive, being sometimes very small and shrunken,” the sporoplasm 
then frequently showing a well-defined segmentation, the line of division 
extending through its middle [i. e., coinciding with the vertical plane]. 
Each sporoplasm-half envelops, in the form of a well-defined crescent, 
the corresponding capsule. Nonvacuolate (letter to author, 1893), 
The sporoplasm stains with Pfitzner’s aleoholic safranin a light pink- 
ish hue. appearing under a Leitz ;'; in anilin-stained sections, delicately 
granular; no other structure discernible. Nucleus and evidence of 
nuclear contents invariably absent. Obimacher adds: 
I could not even demonstrate the micrococci-like particles in the plasmatic body, 
as have been described by Lutz, or the satranophile particles of Biitschli. 
Micro-chemistry: Ohlmacher finds the sporoplasm constantly cyan- 
ophilous, the capsules constantly erythrophilous. This occurs with 
carbolic fuchsin and carbolic iodine green (Russells method); the 
capsules staining a brilliant red, the sporoplasm light green. The tint 
of the sporoplasm (consequently also the degree of dichromophilism) 
varies from violet to a well-defined green. This difference depends in 
large part on the developmental stage of the sporoplasm. Where large 
and unsegmented and occupying a large part of the shell cavity the 
green stain was less clearly defined; where more condensed and divided 
into the 2 crescents closely applied to the capsules, the green was well 
marked. A striking differentiation is produced by Pfitzner’s alcoholic 
safranin, followed by aqueous methyl blue, rapid washing in alcohol, 
and clearing in xylol. The Biondi-Heidenhain triple stain and Wat- 
asé’s cyanin-chromatrop failed, a result attributed to nonpenetration 
of the shell by the stain. On the other hand, the success of fuchsin- 
jodine-green and safranin-methyl-blue seems, Ohlmacher says, to be 
due solely to their more powerful staining properties, which permit them 
to penetrate the somewhat resistant shell. 
This dichromophilism of the capsule and sporoplasm Ohlmacher com- 
1 By this term he ineans the spore-shell. 
2Due, I think, to absolute alcohol fixation. 
vad 
