268 Phillips on a Comparative Study of the 
no reliability could be placed in stains for the differentiation 
of cell constituents. He considered the staining reactions 
to be wholly physical, and due to the power of a substance 
to absorb the stain, though just what the physical proper- 
ties were, as distinguished from chemical, which caused 
this absorption, he did not state. It would seem that, if two 
portions of a cell stained differently with the same stain, or 
if the same portion stained differently at different times, 
there certainly must be some difference, chemical or physi- 
cal, which would cause the different reactions. If, then, 
there be such a difference in the stainability of the cell parts, 
it would scarcely seem proper to simply sweep all such reac- 
tions aside as worthless. It makes little difference whether 
the reactions be caused by chemical or physical processes, 
so long as a difference in cell structure is shown. After dis- 
carding all staining relations, Fischer proceeded to study 
the cell contents of the Cyanophyceze and Bacteria. By 
digestion in hydrofluoric acid he found that all of the cell 
contents were dissolved except the chromatophores, which 
were usually hollow and barrel-shaped or cylindrical, accord- 
ing to the form of the cell. He could not make out any 
pellicle of protoplasm surrounding the chromatophore, but 
inferred that there was one from the fact that the granules 
accumulated on the partition walls. These granules he 
thought to have no significance as cell organs, rather they 
acted as assimilative and reserve products, the nature of 
which, whether albuminous or carbohydrate, it was impossi- 
ble to determine. He maintained that “the ground mass of 
the central body is nothing more or less than a main part of 
the protoplast surrounded by the chromatophore in whichthe 
assimilation products are imbedded. The central body was in 
no way the prototype of a nucleus, and the cell had no organ 
in any way like a nucleus, either phylogenetically or other- 
wise. This central body might be surrounded by a very deli- 
cate membrane that ran from partition wall to partition wall. 
At the time of division, the granulations showed no charac- 
teristic groupings and that which was taken by some to be 
