EFFECT OF OVER-ACTIVITY ON SYNAPSE 277 



almost every stage of the dissolution of an amoeboid glia cell 

 from the diffuse glia reticulum. Near the amoeboid glia cells 

 the 'Fuellkoerperchen' or the fragments of the Golgi net beams 

 were also observable, as already stated. So I came to the 

 conclusion that in the extreme stage of fatigue <a number of amoe- 

 boid glia cells are produced and are set free from the reticulum. 

 Jakob (18) recently described in his article on secondary degenera- 

 tion the detachment of the gUa cells from the diffuse glia reticu- 

 lum. Of course this process took place only shghtly and on a 

 small scale in my material, but the mechanism would here be the 

 same. At the same time the substance of the reticular struc- 

 ture becomes looser, and finally some of the beams undergo disso- 

 lution and fall to pieces, so that the above-described alteration 

 of the reticulum takes place. What effect the fixing solutions 

 have here on the more or less loosened reticular beams, I can 

 not say; but I believe that the mechanism of the breaking up 

 of the glia reticulum could well be interpreted by th6 above- 

 described facts. 



As far as I know, the studies of the pathological alteration of 

 the pericellular reticulum are very few; the studies of Eisath (10) 

 and Alzheimer (1) were not especially directed toward the peri- 

 cellular reticulum, but merely to the glia reticulum in general. 

 Besta (4) investigated the behavior of the pericellular reticu- 

 lum in certain pathological conditions, but his description does 

 not explain the mechanism of the deterioration clearly enough 

 and he did not inention the appearance of the gha cells at all. As 

 far as the manifestation of the structure in question in fatigue is 

 concerned, this investigation is unique. 



THE BIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE AMOEBOID GLIA CELLS 

 AND THE CONCLUSION FROM THE RESULTS 



As far as my observation went and so far as the histological 

 technique used brought out the facts, over-activity caused no def- 

 inite change in the nervous structure of the synapse of the Mauth- 

 ner cell. Considering the nature of the experiment, one should 

 not be surprised at this; moreover, the Structures in question are 

 so fine and the results of the technique for those structures are 



