EFFECT OF OVER-ACTIVITY ON SYNAPSE 275 



can homologize these protoplasm pieces with the ' Fuellkoerper- 

 chen' of Alzheimer (1) ; as far as the origin of these corpusceles is 

 concerned, I agree with Alzheimer, in so far as the reticular beams 

 of glia tissue swell and are loosened in their substance so that fi- 

 nally they fall here and there to pieces. The probabihty of a post- 

 mortem alteration cannot come into consideration; it must be 

 emphasized here that the fish brains were always fixed in their 

 . fresh condition. 



THE RELATION OF THE AMOEBOID GLIA CELLS TO THE GLIA 



RETICULUM 



As stated before, the glia reticulum of the synapse of the Mauth- 

 ner cell in fatigue was found in a more or less advanced state of 

 deviation from its physiological configuration. The net figure 

 appeared less sharp and the meshes were found more irregular; 

 the net beams were observed either swollen or lessened in thick- 

 ness. The substance of the net beams appeared loosened, and in 

 the state of extreme deterioration the net beams were here and 

 there broken up and reduced to fragments so that in some parts 

 of the synapse the net figure was no longer in evidence. The 

 question now arises whether these manifestations of the peri- 

 cellular reticulum are to be attributed to artefacts caused by the 

 process of preparation of the sections or to be claimed as ante- 

 mortem phenomena caused by the over-activity. The follow- 

 ing circumstances speak explicitly for the latter; first, I got the 

 same results in different kinds of preparations; second, I did not 

 find any case of resting control fish, in which a sunilar picture of the 

 reticulum was observed, and, third, I noticed a number of amoe- 

 boid gha cells with various catabolism products and the so-called 

 ' Fuellkoerperchen. It must be emphasized here that the nu- 

 clei of the glia cells of the synapse showed not only regressive, 

 but also progressive changes. 



Buscaino (5), Rosental (31), and others studied the postmortem 

 appearance of the amoeboid glia cells. Wohlwill (35) declared 

 that through the postmortem decay of neurogha tissue glia cells 

 take occasionally the amoeboid appearance, and the occurrence 

 of the methyl-blue granules and the 'Fuellkoerperchen' does not 



