CYTOPLASMIC CONSTITUENTS OF NERVE CELLS 395 



tionality of the investigator using it (cf. Chondriokonten, chon- 

 driocontes, condiioconti) it becomes at once evident that any- 

 additional terms only complicate the situation, especially when 

 they have been devised to proclaim some functional interpretation. 

 Moreover, we have no assurance that the slight differences im- 

 plied by these terms will be appreciated by the majority of the 

 investigators of the future as well as those of the present. It 

 would be much safer and simpler to make use of the word 'mi- 

 tochondria,' recognising that similar granules may assume differ- 

 ent shapes under varying functional conditions, such as rate of 

 multiplication, surface tension, and so forth, because by so doing 

 we need not subscribe to any theoretical considerations respect- 

 ing their significance. 



(3) The inadequacy of the technique employed. Meves' gen- 

 eralization was apparently based, in the first instance, on the 

 application of a slightly modified iron hematoxylin method of 

 technique alone. The fact that Michaelis demonstrated in 1899 

 that mitochondria could be stained specifically by janus green, 

 and that Bensley recognized the importance of this discovery^ 

 introduced it into histological technique and repeatedly called 

 attention to it in his publications (1910 and again in 1911) has 

 been completely ignored. It is true that we have not yet got 

 a satisfactory dye for the neurofibrils and the canalicular appa- 

 ratus, and that we cannot in fixed tissues even, demonstrate, in a 

 constant fashion, the neurofibrils and the mitochondria specifically 

 stained in the same cell. Thus we are frequently forced to piece 

 together in our mind's eye the relations of the different cytoplas- 

 mic constituents to each other although we have to study them 

 singly in separate preparations. Pending the discovery of vital 

 dyes and synthetic methods all the available methods of tech- 

 nique must be employed so that the popular pitfall of supposing 

 that one or two methods alone will tell the whole story may be 

 avoided. Even when these precautions have been taken, the 

 biologist should stop to consider what a multitude of factors 

 associated with the structure of cells the microscope still fails 

 to reveal to us. 



