32 Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



wall, it would seem as if the ratio between its depth and that of 

 the cell wall should be the same as that between the two columns 

 of fluid in my tube. I found that a given fiber of the apparent 

 network was of the same depth as the cell wall itself. If the fiber 

 were the summit of a ridge, the depth of the ridge would then 

 be twice the depth of the cell wall. Therefore, if we over- 

 look for the moment the possibility of refraction, the depth of 

 the stain in the glass tube necessary to produce the same depth 

 of color should be just twice that which gave the color of the 

 wall itself. But the depth of fluid in the glass tube which gave 

 the color of the network was 25 times that which gave the color 

 of the cell wall. The experiment was repeated on other cells 

 with practically the same result. If the greater depth of color 

 in this apparent network were due to refraction, changes in the 

 light and in the focus would render the color brighter ; but 

 these changes produce no effect in the depth of color and, there- 

 fore, the latter can not be due to refraction. Moreover, it 

 sometimes happens that a dark blue network is found around a 

 cell whose wall is stained pink by the secondary stain. There 

 must be, therefore, some normal or artificial structure along the 

 summit of the folds which of itself, takes a much deeper stain 

 than the cell wall. 



An appearance exactly resembling this network is often 

 seen on the varicosities of the nerve-fibers where a pericellular 

 nerve-basket certainly does not normally exist. After my ex- 

 perience in studying living, normal nerve-tissue and in observ- 

 ing the formation of artefacts during post-mortem changes — 

 artefacts that have in the past been considered normal, — I feel 

 that I am not prepared to discuss the question as to whether 

 this basket-like appearance is an artefact in all cases or is a nor- 

 mal structure in the one case and an artefact in the other until 

 I am able to investigate the subject in living material. In my 

 mounted preparations, I can select a ganglion cell which one 

 would say was without doubt surrounded by a terminal nerve- 

 basket. I can select others in which one would instantly decide 

 that the basket was an artificial appearance due to the wrinkling 



