Irving Hardesty — 85 
Usually spherical or oval, they may assume any of the shapes ascribed 
to polymorphic nuclei. Their chromatin is of the granular arrange- 
ment and stains deeply. It usually occurs as one or more larger masses 
of irregular outline situated among a number of smaller granules. The 
smaller nuclei stain more deeply than the larger. Now and then neu- 
roglia cells are found which are appreciably larger than the ordinary. 
These “ colossal glia cells” (Monstrezellen of Weigert or the “ Monstre- 
astrocytes ” of the Golgi method) often contain two or more nuclei. 
These “ Multinucleated glia cells” (Aguerre and Krause") are thought 
to be a special type of neuroglia cell and constant structures for all the 
higher mammals. Further they may have to do with the multiplying 
of the cells. 
3. The neuroglia fibers, at one time regarded as processes of the neu- 
roglia cells (Deiters’ cells), are not identical with the cytoplasm of the 
cells, but are morphologically, physically and chemically different from 
it. By the selective stains, the fibers appear completely differentiated 
from the cell protoplasm and therefore cannot be considered as pro- 
cesses in the ordinary sense of the word. Further, a single fiber may 
often be observed pursuing an unbroken course through the domain of 
the cell-body, thus involving two outgrowths which could not be the 
case were each fiber a process arising individually from the cell-body. 
The differentiated fibers appear to pass through the cell chiefly along 
its outer zone, but often cross above or below the nucleus and sometimes 
directly through the cytoplasm surrounding the nucleus when such is 
present. They are quite small, are thread-like in contour and vary 
somewhat in thickness. They frequently anastomose. They form a 
true supporting tissue for the nervous elements and in the substantia 
alba, the greater number course in the general direction of the nerve 
fibers about which they form loose plexuses. They are of unknown 
length. In the spinal cord they are more abundant about the blood- 
vessels, about the central canal and in the posterior white commissure 
than among the nerve fibers. The number of neuroglia nuclei in a 
given locality is no index of the abundance of neuroglia fibers to be 
found there. 
4. Neuroglia fibers may be regarded as differentiated intercellular 
structures since they bear no fixed relation to the neuroglia nuclei nor 
to the cells themselves, though in certain cases the neuroglia fibers are 
not completely emancipated from the cytoplasm of the cells. They 
are produced at the expense cf the cell protoplasm and are later differ- 
entiated from it but by a process the steps of which are unknown. 
9Krause. Anhang. z. d. Abh. der Konig]. Akad. der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 1899. 
