522 GENCHO FUJIMURA 



near the nucleus, though some lie scattered in the protoplasm 

 between the secretory granules, all being arranged in an irregular 

 order. With regard to the functional significance of the plasto- 

 somes contained in these glandular cells, there are various 

 theories, such as the theory of secreting mechanism by Benda 

 ('03, p. 780), that of water-secreting apparatus by M. Heiden- 

 hain ('07), and that of prop system by Bruntz ('08); however, 

 these are either the historic ones, haying been refuted 

 experimentally by Meves and Regaud ('08) already, or mere 

 assumptions. 



What is believed by a great majority of authors at present is 

 that plastosomes are very closely related to the formation of 

 secretory granules. And the first man who published his views 

 with regard to this was Altmann ('94), who thought that his 

 so-called 'vegetative Faden' — a greater part of which agrees with 

 our plastosomes of to-day — being split up in small pieces are 

 formed into granular bodies in large numbers and make the 

 beginning of secretory granules. Quite recently the researches of 

 Laguesse ('99 a, b, '05, '11), Regaud ('09), Regaud and Mawas 

 ('09), Hoven ('10, '11, '12), Champy ('11), Schultze ('11), have 

 followed one after the other, and, though their observations may 

 differ a little from one another, either in trifling points or in the 

 form of description, they none the less fall entirely into line with 

 Altmann' s view that the formation of secretory granules has 

 its origin in plastosomes. And, moreover, the fact that, as is 

 generally acknowledged, the number of plastosomes in gland- 

 ular cells always increases or decreases according to the changes 

 of secreting functions is nothing if not forcibly proving the valid- 

 ity of such a theory. 



However, this very theory is not without objections. M. 

 Heidenhain, Mislawsky ('11), and Levi ('12) are those who 

 are opposed to it. Especially M. Heidenhain, taking his stand 

 on the ' Protomeren-Theorie ' which he set forth, states that 

 secretory granules should have their origin in extremely faint 

 and extraordinarily small bodies in the protoplasm which are 

 beyond our sight; these bodies growing up and increasing 

 should gradually develop into the smallest granules— his 



