MUSCLE DEGENERATION IN AMPHIBIA 77 



ing amoeboid movement. The rim of cytoplasm around the nu- 

 cleus is very narrow, in some cells so scanty in its amount that it is 

 difficult to see. The minority of cells in this accumulation are 

 larger than the ones described. They have large nuclei which 

 may vary somewhat in outline as those of the smallest white cells. 

 They have a wide rim of cytoplasm around the nuclei to which the 

 large size of the cell is due. According to Friedsohn's work ('10) 

 on the amphibian blood, the smaller cells appear to be the small 

 lymphocytes and the larger ones the large lymphocytes. An 

 occasional eosinophile leucocyte can also be seen, while partially 

 and completely degenerated erythrocytes are thinly scattered 

 throughout the accumulation of leucocytes. No perceptible 

 change in the muscle fiber itself has yet taken place in this stage of 

 degeneration. 



After the degeneration of the muscle tissue has advanced to the 

 stage in which the degeneration of the fibers is readily perceptible 

 the number of white blood cells is as numerous as at the time when 

 the degeneration was first evident, but the lymphocytes ha\'e 

 greatly decreased, while the eosinophile leucocytes have increased 

 in number. In this stage of degeneration numerous eosinophile 

 granules can be seen lying free in the intercellular spaces and 

 often in contact with lymphocytes and eosinophile leucocytes. 

 The number of eosinophile granules varies greatly in the eosino- 

 phile cells, from only a few granules to the gorged condition of 

 some of the cells (fig. 7), thus suggesting again that the lympho- 

 cytes take up eosinophile granules. The presence of the large 

 number of lymphocytes during the first stages of degeneration and 

 a subsequent reduction of their number and replacement by large 

 numbers of eosinophile leucocytes as degeneration advances, 

 clearly indicates that the eosinophile granules are taken up b}'- the 

 lymphocytes. The point in case is that the lymphocytes are the 

 main cells that take up the granules and are thus converted into 

 eosinophile cells. 



The majority of the eosinophile leucocytes found in connection 

 with degenerating muscle and erythrocytes have round or nearly 

 round nuclei. In some the nuclei are of the transitional type 



