ELECTROPLAX OF ASTROSCOPUS 101 
and also a rough knowledge of their chemical composition is 
imperative. The contour and form of these rods as they appear 
under the microscope resemble both smooth muscle fibers and 
fibers of elastic connective tissue. The belief that the function 
of these rods was somewhat of the nature of support for the 
delicate substance of the electroplax, and the fact that their 
form resembled connective tissue fibers led the writer to take 
for one of his first hypotheses, that they were of some form 
of connective tissue, and to perform accordingly the following 
series of experiments. As the most logical and best way for 
determining the kind of connective tissue, if any, of which the 
rods might be composed, a number of stains used by other 
investigators to identify similar substances were applied and 
the results noted. Controls were used on known tissues. 
Before taking up the connective tissue stains, however, a 
description of the results from the iron hematoxylin staining is 
now noteworthy; the material used being fixed in pure corrosive 
sublimate. 
The jelly connective tissue stained a very light gray. The 
nutritive, striated, and electric layers stained a much darker 
gray. The nuclei in all the layers stained somewhat black. 
The pointed fibers, and rods found in the electric layer stained 
a deep black, thus being clearly differentiated from the surround- 
ing cytoplasm. In some electroplaxes they were very numer- 
ous, while in others the number was rather small. 
' The connective tissue stains applied as follows: 
(1) Mallory’s connective tissue stain, using the modifica- 
tion given in Lewis’ ‘‘Text-book of histology.’’ White fibrous 
connective tissue should stain blue in this medium. 
Paraffin sections of the electroplaxes fixed in corrosive subli- 
mate were stained for 10 to 12 minutes in a 1 per cent aqueous 
solution of acid fuchsin. They were then transferred directly 
to a stain consisting of 0.05 grain of aniline blue (soluble in 
water) and 0.2 grain of orange G dissolved in 100 ce. of a 110 
per cent aqueous solution of phospho-molybdic acid. In this 
they remained from 2 to 3 minutes. They were then rinsed in 
distilled water, dehydrated rapidly, cleared and mounted. 
