540 CHARLES W. HARGITT 
ceive that the facts are not quite as clearly within the amitotic 
mode, and with apparently quite as strong evidence in support 
of the latter view. Granted the facts of amitosis as a normal 
process in cytogeny, and this is no longer open to denial, its 
occurrence along side of mitosis must be allowed. And even ° 
where one investigator may find mitosis, another may find both 
mitosis and amitosis; and this I have shown in the cases already 
cited, and my results have been confirmed in similar cases by 
others. ‘ 
But there is still a further word in this connection. The fact 
that the nuclear vesicles differ so markedly in size, shape and num- 
ber is rather difficult to interpret on the basis of mitosis alone. 
Are these several vesicles derived from single chromosomes, or 
from several which have fused? If the latter, how shall we corre- 
late the fact with the further fact, admitted by both Smallwood 
and Beckwith, that it is not essential that these vesicles should 
fuse between successive mitoses? But how then shall we attempt 
to explain the assumed exact nuclear equivalents of every mitotic 
division? But if, on the other hand, it be held that these nuclear 
vesicles are originally derived from single chromosomes, as seems 
more likely, how are we to account for the marked diversity of 
size, number and shape? These queries are not suggested out 
of any captious spirit, nor on the other hand, as affording an insup- 
erable objection to the interpretations given by these authors, 
but as more or less clearly pertinent questions which warrant 
consideration in connection with the problem concerned. 
The further assertion of Smallwood in this connection that ‘‘the 
mere shape of the nucleus in Pennaria is no indication of amitosis,”’ 
may be looked on as somewhat of an evasion of the real issue. 
I have nowhere made such a claim; but if such were the case it 
might with pertinence be replied that mere shape is not the point 
at issue. On the other hand, we are here concerned with partic- 
ular and anomalous shape, a very different matter. Whether 
shape has any significance in this relation depends to a marked 
degree upon the kind of shape. That a reniform, or dumb-bell 
shaped nucleus ‘is no indication of amitosis’ may be flatly denied, 
where it is more or less prevalent. Given such shapes, while 
