136 Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine. 



rodshaped granules and none in the " Biirstenbesatz." These 

 details are naturally more plainly shown in the large cells of the 

 convoluted tubules but in a general way the smaller cells in the 

 connecting tubules and in the descending loops of Henle resemble 

 them very closely. Some groups of convoluted tubules have 

 much coarser granules than others. I have not been able to 

 make out whether this is a constant anatomic difference or due to 

 different functional stages. If the granules have any relation to 

 the function of the cells, which seems probable, one would surmise 

 that the connecting tubules cannot purely serve the function of 

 conducting the urine from one place to another, all the more so 

 as in the large ducts in the pyramids which serve this purpose 

 alone, the granules are very scanty and irregularly arranged. In 

 the large light cells of the ascending parts of the Henle's loops 

 the granules are exceedingly small, also slightly rodshaped, ex- 

 tremely numerous and scattered all through the cells in an irreg- 

 ular fashion. This might be used as an argument in favor of a 

 difference in function of this portion of the tubules. In the cells 

 of the liver of these animals the granules vary greatly in size from 

 just visible to quite coarse granules. All of them are rods, some 

 short, others quite long and more or less wavy. The granules 

 are scattered irregularly all over the cells. 



In granular degeneration the characteristic macroscopic and 

 microscopic pictures of which can be best produced by intravenous 

 injection of bichromate of potash, the granules enlarge in size, 

 become more or less spherical, lose their normal arrangement 

 and stain very deeply with Altmann's stain contrary to what has 

 been generally assumed after the work of Schilling, 1 who seems to 

 be the only one to have investigated this question. Whether there 

 is an actual multiplication of the granules, it is difficult to decide 

 but on the whole the evidence seems against it. The change is 

 almost exclusively in the convoluted tubules; the connecting 

 tubules and the loops of Henle as a whole are slightly affected if 

 at all. In the liver the change is similar, all cells being equally 

 involved. The albuminous granules in granular degeneration, 

 then, are not new formed granules but largely the enlarged and 

 disarranged normal Altmann granules. I was able to confirm this 



1 Schilling : Virch. Arch., 1897, cxxxv, p. 410. 



