NERVE CUTTING IN AMIURUS 385 
in the rabbit and fish, namely, that the taste buds undergo a 
process of degeneraton, not dedifferentiation. 
In all the fourteen-day preparations the buds had entirely 
disappeared, and all these preparations were characterized by 
the great number of mitoses in the germinative layer in the 
region which was originally the base of a bud. Mitosis did not 
occur in the cells above the germinative layer, but seemed to be 
confined to those cells which, in tangential sections, form a ring 
about the capillary (fig. 13). In some fields one could find 
seven or eight cases. Figure 13, a, b, shows two in a single ring. 
Transverse sections show that the germinative layer of the epi- 
dermis is now practically an unbroken line, and the other layers 
of epidermal cells are arranged more nearly in the manner of 
ordinary stratified epithelium, a slight disarrangement of the 
parallel layers occurring in those cells which formerly constituted 
concentric spheres about the taste bud (fig. 14). These still 
retain much of this configuration. 
Once the taste buds have completely disappeared, there is 
no great change for many days. The papillae upon which the 
buds rested always remain, and they finally come to be the only 
indication of the position of the former taste buds (fig. 23). 
The papillae become much wider than in the normal bud (fig. 14). 
Capillaries are present in them and there are nearly always 
chromatophores. Often the chromatophores do not le outside 
the capillaries against the germinative epithelium as in the 
normal bud, but now are in the center of the papilla, in the place 
where the nerve to the taste bud was formerly situated. This 
pigment is the only sign of the nerve which is left. The epi- 
dermis is on the fifteenth day ordinary stratified epithelium. 
RESTORATION OF NORMAL CONDITION 
Upon examining one series of longitudinal sections eighteen 
days after operation, in which the barbel had been cut so close 
to the body that a small piece of skin remained attached, it was 
noticed that the bit of skin contained normal taste buds, and 
upon closer examination a series of some ten small buds was 
