GAS GLANDS OF SOME TELEOSTEAN FISHES. 235 



side-chains forming " anti-bodies," wliicli Ebrlich assumes to 

 occur in his tlieory of immunity) and that later at the remote 

 pole of the cell, i. e. the region of the cell remote from the blood 

 strea^m, this loose temporary incorporation of the dissolved 

 oxyhpemoglobin with the cytoplasm breaks down with the 

 liberation of oxygen gas, which, as already seen, arises as bubbles 

 usually in the vicinity of the nucleus. The slight decomposition 

 of cell-substance which we may thus suppose to occur is evidently 

 quite distinct from that decomposition postulated by Nusbaum 

 & Reis. In our supposition the temporary linkage of the 

 oxyhfemoglobin with the cytoplasm is merely to enable the 

 cytoplasm to obtain a " grip " on the oxyhjemoglobin in order to 

 dissociate the oxygen ; in the supposition of Nusbaum & Reis 

 it is the cytoplasm itself which decomposes. 



A minor point remains to be mentioned. We have already 

 stated that the veins returning the blood from the gas glanfl 

 contain a relatively large amount of granular matter resulting 

 from the h?emolysis of the red blood coi'puscles, and the question 

 remains as to what becomes of this superfluous granular matter. 

 It can only be said in rej)ly that probably a large portion of this 

 disintegration material is eliminated from the blood by the liver, 

 since we know that one function of the liver cells in all Verte- 

 brates is to destroy degenerate corpuscles * and other waste 

 material in the blood ; possibly also the spleen assists in this 

 connection, though, judging from its histological appearance, I 

 doubt it. I have also observed in several genera (A^erophis, 

 Gohlus, Gasterosteiis, &c.) masses of cells lying to the outer sides 

 of or between the kidneys in which a destruction of effete blood - 

 corpuscles seems to be actively proceeding. It is, however, of 

 little concern to us in what manner the blood is clarified in these 

 teleostean fishes ; it suffices to say that the relative purity of the 

 arterial blood in the bladder joroves that such elimination does 

 take place. 



On re\iewing the foregoing pages it will be seen that the hypo- 

 thesis concerning the physiology of the " red bodies " just elaborated 

 has much to be said for it. In its essential features it is the theory 

 of Jaeger and Ilufner, supplemented, however, and in some respects 

 cori'ected, by the observations of Bykowski, Nusbaum, Reis, and 

 other investigators, and slightly extended by the few suggestions 

 made by the present writer. Its validity is assured by the number 

 of diverse facts which it interprets, for not only does it explain 

 the general fact of the existence of the " red body '"' as the only 

 mechanism possible under the conditions for the rapid inflation 

 of the bladder, but it also explains the minutest details of this 

 mechanism, such as the perivascular striping of the component 

 cells of the gas gland and the disintegration of the erythrocytes, 

 and such a wide range of interpretation constitutes the criterion 

 of a true theory, 



* These evytliroc.vtes in the liver have of course been largely dejirived of their 

 oxygen by the gut tissues. 



