EFFECT OF OVER-ACTIVITY ON SYNAPSE 273 



granules of Alzheimer. ^Vhether these granules consist of pro- 

 tagon or not, is another question; recent studies raised doubt 

 against the real existence of protagon as a uniform substance. 

 (Rosenheim, Tebb, Thudicum, cited in (18)). I should add here 

 that I always used bergamot oil instead of xylol in the process 

 of paraffin embedding. 



Alzheimer (1) declared that he did not find, or he found at the 

 most only indications of, these granules in the amoeboid glia cells; 

 but as far as my observation went, I found a number of amoeboid 

 glia cells with this kind of granules. The finding that these gran- 

 ules are observable in the cells of blood-vessels, as will be de- 

 scribed later, and in the glia cells around the blood-vessels relatively 

 more numerously, and the fact that in Scharlach stain fat drops 

 are found in those cells, as will be related below, make one assume 

 that they are transported toward the blood-vessels and that these 

 granules give rise to the production of fat as Alzheimer did. 

 Reich assumed that the appearance of this kind of granules has 

 a relation to the decay of the myelin sheath; according to Alz- 

 heimer (1), it is not, however, necessary for the appearance of this 

 kind of granules. As the neuroglia cells of the synapse of Mauth- 

 ner's cell lie mostly at the border of the axone cap, where the nerve 

 fibers lose their myelin sheaths, I cannot decide this question 

 from my own observation. Moreover, as the granules appear 

 only in fatigue, it is probable that they have something to do 

 with a pathological nutrition condition of the nerve tissue; the 

 fact that they are a catabolism product is acceptable because they 

 are transported toward the blood-vessel, and it is also probable 

 that they are changed into fat, just like the other catabolism 

 products. 



On the basis of the above-described facts, it is quite clear that 

 in fatigue a number of amoeboid glia cells are produced in and 

 about the synapse, which carry different kinds of catabolism prod- 

 ucts in their cell body as well as in their processes. As already 

 repeated, I found these amoeboid glia cells relatively more 

 numerous around the capillaries in and about the synapse. It was 

 also remarked that many a conglomeration of metachromatic 

 basophile granules was demonstrated around the blood-vessels 



