GEEM CELLS OF COELENTERATES 39 



to find the nucleus and cytoplasmic granules staining alike, but 

 some \^tal dyes gave a difference in staining reaction. If young 

 eggs were digested in pepsin, the nucleus and the cytoplasmic 

 granules were unaffected. Beckwith clearly points out the lack 

 of precision in selective staining, but beheves her evidence shows 

 the non-chromatic character of the protoplasmic granules. "In 

 all cases which seem to indicate the contrary conclusion (some 

 staining and digestive tests and tests for proteid) the results 

 can be interpreted in some other way." This author believes 

 the contrary conclusions of Smallwood, Schaxel, and others are 

 due to faulty technique. Differences in technique may un- 

 doubtedly account for difference in appearance, but it would 

 appear rather improbable that these investigators, in addition 

 to others not mentioned, all working independently and by 

 different methods and arriving at similar conclusions, should not 

 have worked out a reasonably satisfactory technique and should 

 have been unable to distinguish between artifacts and real 

 structures. It is permissible for Beckwith to differ in her in- 

 terpretation of observed facts, but not to attack the methods 

 of those who differ in this interpretation, with no more grounds 

 than she offers. According to Beckwith herself, the e\ddence 

 implies that these other authors were correct in interpretation; 

 the weight of evidence of her owti observations supports their 

 contention of the chromatic character of the protoplasmic bodies 

 under discussion, for she says, ''the balance of the evidence 

 . . . . indicates the non-chromatic nature of the granules 

 in question." I do not believe the balance of her evidence 

 outweighs the e\ddence in the other direction. 



Jorgensen ('13) discounts his own earher work on sponges, all 

 of Schaxel's work, the work of Goldschmidt, ^Montgomery, and 

 others, so far as they relate to questions like the present one. 

 He believes undue weight has been placed upon staining reactions; 

 it is necessary, in his opinion, to identify nucleic acid in plasm 

 granules in order to show their chromatic origin. Pepsin digestion 

 experiments convinced him of the presence of nucleic acid com- 

 pounds in the cytoplasm of some eggs, and he admits the occa- 

 sional migration of chromatin from nuclei, but he thinks this is 



