Dictyokinesis in Germ Cells. 



237 



Golgi apparatus. In nearly all the cases with which we are familiar, the 

 Golgi apparatus, when demonstrated either by an osmic or chrome osmium 

 iron hsematoxylin method, is found to consist of distinct rods or batonettes— 

 the dictyosomes of Per rincito*— distributed over the surface of the centro- 

 sphere or archoplasm. (See Plate 18, fig. 14.) 



In other cases the Golgi elements appear to be of a semi-liquid consistency, 

 easily altered by anything but the most delicate treatment in both fixing 

 and embedding materials. In many examples of mammalian cells examined 

 by us, the Golgi apparatus seemed to be merely a cortical stainable area 

 of the archoplasm or centres phere, but whether this is really the case, 

 intra vitam, is very difficult to decide. In other cases (Plate 18, fig. 14), 

 separate dictyosomes or distinct cortical areas were demonstrable. 



Dictyokinesis in Mus. 



The division of the Golgi apparatus in the male germ cells of Mus rattus- 

 was worked out in preparations made by the silver impregnation method of 

 Da Fano. The apparatus in the spermatogonia and primary spermatocytes' 

 appears as a compact mass of short black rod-like granules, embedded on^ 

 a darkly-stained archoplasmic mass or centrosphere, as is shown in fig. 1, 

 Plate 17. During the growth phase of the spermatocyte, the apparatus- 

 increases somewhat in size, and about the time when the membrane of the^ 

 nucleus has broken down, preparatory to the first reduction division, th& 

 archoplasm can be seen in process of fission. At GA (in fig. 2) the archo- 

 plasm is seen separating into two portions. It will be noticed that as the 

 two halves of this substance separate, they carry with them about an equal 

 number of the Golgi rods or dictyosomes. In fig. 3 the archoplasm is com- 

 pletely separated into two constituent parts. 



There is no doubt that the cause of this separation is the division of the 

 centrosome, for the two masses move apart and come to occupy positions 

 at opposite ends of the cell, as is shown at GA in fig. 7, which represents 

 a late prophase of a second spermatocyte division. Between the two 

 separated masses of archoplasm arise the fibres of the spindle, and, as the 

 chromosomes become arranged equatorially upon this, the Golgi rods break 

 away from the archoplasm and become scattered in the cytoplasm. Fig. 4 

 shows this scattering processs during the metaphase. It seems almost as 

 though some force which the archoplasmic mass or centrosome has previously 

 exerted upon the dictyosomes is diverted during the meta- and telo-phase 

 stages to act upon the chromosomes and draw them apart (E. J. L.). 

 Whether or not this be the case, it can be seen that during the meta-, ana-, 

 * ' Arch. Ital. Biol.,' vol. 54 (1910). 



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