9 



Chloride, osmic acid ^/2 % and 1 %, and Flemming's fluid. Alcohol 

 at ordinary temperature apparently dissolves the granules, but at boil- 

 ing it fixes them and they are then readily stained in alcoholic stains. 

 The acido])hiles described by Hardy and Westbrook (3) were pre- 

 served by alcohol, but best at ordinary temperatures. After any of 

 the preservatives mentioned above, the acidophile granules are easily 

 demonstrated. Flemming's fluid is one of the most reliable fixing 

 agents for these cells. After this fixation and after osmic acid V2 % 

 and 1 %, the granules before staining are seen as dark brown, rather 

 indistinctly outlined globules. Other fixatives such as picric acid show 

 the granules in unstained sections because of the difference in their 

 refractivity from that of the surrounding cytoplasm. On Flemming 

 material, Flemming's triple stain gives beautiful pictures of the granule 

 cells and surrounding tissue. The cells are round, oval, or polygonal, 

 and often have short processes which branch and seem to come into 

 relation with the reticulum. They are never elongated with long pro- 

 cesses as are the basophile cells. The round and oval cells lie free 

 in the meshes. The nuclei are spherical. I have never seen a cell 

 with the nucleus of polymorphic form. In a very few cases I have 

 observed cells with two spherical nuclei. The linin reticulum of the 

 nucleus stains more or less distinctly; the chromatin stains intensely 

 and is regularly distributed about the periphery. In the larger poly- 

 gonal cells the chromatin is more difl'usely scattered, and the nuclei 

 are clearer, corresponding more nearly to the nuclei of the cells of 

 the reticulum. Both nuclei and cell bodies vary somewhat in size. 

 Measurements of 39 cells show an average diameter of 4,7 micra for 

 the former, and 9,6 for the latter. 



The granules in the Flemming's triple stained preparations appear 

 dark brown (almost black) not differing much in color from the chro- 

 matin in the same preparations. They are usually quite sharply defi- 

 ned and almost perfectly spherical. They difi'er in size in the same 

 cell, and in size, number and distribution in different cells. In a 

 single cell I found granules varying from 0,35 micron to 0,6 micron 

 in diameter. They are usually more uniform. Some cells contain from 

 15 to 20 granules; in others 30 or 40 can be counted at one focus 

 with a 1/1 6 inch oil-immersion lens, and No. 4 eye-piece. The distribu- 

 tion of the granules in the cytoplasm varies also. In some cells there 

 are many granules placed close to the nuclei so as almost to obscure 

 them; other cells have fewer granules and these scattered irregularly 

 throughout the cytoplasm. Where the granules are fewer within the 

 cell, they are also larger, though always relatively coarse. Cells con- 



