244 Papers from the Department of Marine Biology. 
in it, but the plasmosome is always found on the kathodal surface 
of the perichromatin mass, and while it never touches nor sticks out of 
the surface, it does appear to press up in a way that makes a little 
mound of the perichromatin above it. Neither the plasmosome nor 
the karyosomes are changed in structure or size by treatment with 
currents of this strength. 
The kathodal end of the nucleus contains a very fine reticulum of 
meshes, the fibrils of which pass largely in the line of the electric 
current. Sometimes, or even usually, these meshes appear to hold 
one of thekaryosomes, which has therefore not been able to move toward 
the anode and join its fellows that are distributed very generally 
through the modified perichromatin mass. Two such cases are to be 
seen in one cell and one in the other cell pictured in figure 19, plate 4. 
This kathodal reticulum grows denser toward the kathodal surface 
of the nucleus and appears to have in it very fine granules of a chromatic 
material, chromatic at least with regard to iron hematoxylin, but not 
quite so strongly to the carmines. 
It will be interesting to draw a short comparison between the 
action of the electric current on this large, highly differentiated nucleus 
of the electric motor nerve-cell and the small nuclei of some of the 
surrounding connective-tissue cells. Such nuclei are seen in figure 19, 
plate 4, and in them one sees a rude approximation to the conditions 
seen in the nerve-cell. The chromatin has been moved toward the 
anode, but has not been melted or dissolved into a homogeneous median 
as in the electric nerve-cell. The chromatin masses are still more or 
less distinct and no large plasmosome is apparent. This comparison 
may serve as an index of the superior analytical conditions to be secured 
by experimenting electrically with a large, highly differentiated cell 
(such as this nerve-cell) rather than with smaller tissue-cells such as 
have usually been worked with. 
As for the exact processes by which the nucleus of the electric motor 
nerve-cell has been so changed, there is room for difference of opinion. 
It is certain that a large part of it is purely physical and mechanical, as 
described by many writers, but in the present case there appear to have 
been chemical changes as well. The perichromatin seems certainly 
to have undergone some melting or solution of its finer particles (the 
perichromosomes) and a mixture of this with the nuclear fluid; also the 
reticulum in the kathodal half of the nucleus seems to be an entirely 
new structure chemically. Further, the chromatic material in this 
reticulum, as well as the deep-staining material in the kathodal sector 
of the cytoplasm, appear to be materials that do not differentiate from 
the rest of the cell under any other circumstances. 
The main point, however, that we learn from this experiment, a 
result that is obtained by all repetitions, is that the plasmosome is not 
moved by this strong electric current all the way toward the kathode, 
