1898-99. ] STRUCTURE, MICRO-CHEMISTRY AND DEVELOPMENT OF NERVE CELLS. 405 
ON THE STRUCTURE, MICRO-CHEMISTRY AND DEVELOP- 
NED IItOr NIRV CELLS, Wil H- SPECIAL REFER- 
ENCE TO THEIR NUCLEIN COMPOUNDS.* 
BY -Be3-Ey (Scorim “Be ~ 
(From the Phystological Laboratory, the University of Toronto.) 
(Read January 14th, 1899.) 
The finer structure of the nerve cell has attracted a great deal of at- 
tention in the last few years, chiefly because the cell body contains 
masses that have a peculiar affinity for certain nuclear stains. These 
masses were first observed in 1882 by Flemming,’ who was not certain 
whether they were nodular thickenings of the ordinary protoplasmic 
fibrillaze or independent structures. His preparations, however, were, for 
the most part, from material that had been fixed in chromic or osmic 
acid, and stained in hematoxylin or carmine, and for this reason the 
bodies in question did not exhibit any distinctive staining properties. 
It was reserved for Nissl’ who examined the cells of the cerebral cortex 
of mammals after fixation in alcohol and staining in basic aniline dyes, 
to show that these bodies stain differently from the remainder of the 
cell protoplasm, and in fact resemble in this respect the large nucleolus. 
For this reason these structures are commonly called Niss] granules or 
“Schollen.” Some observers have employed other names, such as 
tigroid bodies, chromophile corpuscles, basophile or basic substance, 
cytoplasmic chromatin, etc. 
The variable form exhibited by nerve cells from different sources with 
respect to these granules makes the selection of a suitable name based 
on morphological data difficult, but for the purposes of this memoir as 
*A short account of some of the facts recorded here was given for me by Prof. Macallum before the 
Fourth International Physiological Congress, Cambridge, 1898, and the British Medical Association, 
Edinburgh, 1898. See Journa! of Physiology, XXIII, supp. p. 33, and British Medical Journal, September 
17th, 1898. 
1 Flemming, W., ‘‘ Vom Bau der Spinalganglienzellen,’’ Festgabe fiir J. Henle, p. 12, 1882. 
Also: ‘* Zellsubstanz, Kernand Zelltheilung,” p. 41, 1882. 
2 Nissl, Fr., ‘‘ Ueber die Untersuchungsmethoden der Grosshirnde,” Tagebl. der Versammlung deutschr, 
Naturforscher, Strasburg, p. 506, 1885. 
