102 JAMES G. HUGHES, JR. 
A description of an electroplax as seen under the 2 mm. oil 
immersion lens is as follows: The white fibrous or electric con- 
nective tissue stained a light blue or purple. The electric nutri- 
tive and middle layers or the electroplax proper stained a red- 
dish purple, and the nuclei as a whole in all of the layers, stained 
somewhat lighter than their surrounding cytoplasm. 
The peculiar rods and fibers stained a deep red, and were 
thus clearly differentiated from the other elements of the elec- 
troplax. They were very numerous and as noted above their 
outlines were always smooth. Blood corpuscles lying in the 
jelly connective tissue, of which there were only a few, stained 
a brilliant red, much the same as the rods. 
The white fibrous or jelly electric connective tissue (be- 
tween the electroplaxes), as noted above, stained a light blue. 
The pointed fibers and rods stained a deep red. This would 
indicate therefore, that these rods are not composed of white 
fibrous connective tissue. It would seem also that they are not 
muscle for they stained a different shade of color from the rest 
of the electroplaxes, which I have found in the course of my 
work to stain much the same as muscle. 
(2) Ven Gieson’s connective tissue stain, in which white 
fibrous connective tissue should stain red: 
Paraffin sections of the electroplaxes fixed in corrosive sub- 
limate were stained for 4 to 5 minutes in a 1 per cent aqueous 
solution of hematoxylin. They were rinsed in distilled water 
and transferred to a stain consisting of a saturated aqueous 
solution of picrie acid containing 20 per cent acid-fuchsin. They 
remained in here 15 to 20 minutes and were then rinsed, cleared. 
and mounted. The white fibrous connective tissue layer stained 
pink. The three layers of the electroplax stained brown. The 
nuclei and rods stained the same color, that is, brown; and, 
while the nuclei could be seen with difficulty, the rods were 
scarcely visible owing probably to their similar refractive in- 
dex. The fact therefore that the rods did not stain the same 
color as the white fibrous connective tissue, which stained pink, 
indicates again that they are not composed of white fibrous 
connective tissue. By Van Gieson’s stain, therefore, I have 
