124 University of California Publications in Zoology [Vol. 19 



treated with only Lugol's solution. But out of the forty-seven flagel- 

 lates showing parabasal bodies present twenty of them showed the 

 presence of the parabasal-plasm lying between the parabasal bodies. 

 This was attributed to previous treatment with iodine since prep- 

 arations not treated with iodine previous to staining with iron haema- 

 toxylin, fail to show as distinctly the presence of the parabasal-plasm. 

 Some glycogen is lost through processes of killing and fixation of 

 the flagellates, so that the glycogen which remains is only a portion of 

 the original amount present in the parabasal-plasm. In view of this 

 fact, in the case of those flagellates which showed only parabasal-plasm 

 without glycogen, the lack of glycogen may have been due to the loss 

 of the comparatively small amount present in the parabasal-plasm 

 previous to the killing and fixation of the preparations. 



Origin of Parabasal Bodies 



The origin of the mitochondrial granules found in Trichomonas 

 augusta around the nucleus, along the parabasal rod, and in the axo- 

 style may be of nuclear origin since previous to mitotic activity a 

 distinct ehromidial cloud is seen about the nucleus. These chromidia 

 may have been extruded from the nucleus since there is also an 

 intranuclear ehromidial cloud present at the same time. Alexeieff 

 (1917) also finds that the mitochondrial granules are azurophyllic 

 when stained with Giemsa. This reaction being characteristic of the 

 chromatin of the nucleus Alexeieff believes that the reaction is further 

 evidence of the probable nuclear origin of the granules. It seems 

 safe to infer from this paper that if the mitochondrial granules form 

 the parabasal rod indirectly this rod is also of nuclear origin. 



It has been mentioned previously, however, that in G. microti there 

 is no evidence of ehromidial extrusion or ehromidial clouds, and 

 because the parabasal bodies are markedly acidophyllic there seems 

 little evidence for attributing nuclear origin to these organs. Again, 

 glacial acetic acid in the killing fluid failed to dissolve the parabasal 

 bodies, which would have been expected if they were mitochondrial 

 in constitution. Prom the evidence at hand it appears best to desig- 

 nate these parabasal bodies along with the parabasal-plasm as struc- 

 tures derived directly from the cytoplasm. They are metaplastic in 

 nature, since they are formed from the anabolic processes of metabolism 

 and tend to disappear when the katabolic activity exceeds anabolism. 

 This is especially marked during the final stages of mitosis, plasmotomy 



