CHANGES IN OHONDRIOSOMES. 
563 
unknown. It may, however, be observed that the functions 
of the hepatic cells in such cases do not seem to be seriously 
affected, for the condition is not incompatible with continued 
existence. 
The chondriosomes of the epidermis have long been known as 
epidermal fibrils (fibrilles epidermiques, Protoplasmafasern), 
thong’ll their relation to chondriokonts has only recently been 
established by the researches of Firket,^ So far back as 
1899, Herxlieimcr* pointed out that these fibrils are most 
readily demonstrable iu epithelioma, in warts, and in the 
apparently healthy skin in the neighbourhood of these lesions. 
Epidermal fibrils can also be exhibited with varying degrees 
of facility in callosities, at the edge of lupus areas and in 
chronic inflammatory conditions. In all these lesions, how- 
ever, staining is more or less uncertain and is unequal in 
different parts of the same section. When overgrowth of 
epidermis has been produced in human skin or in the skin 
of the rabbit by means of the epidermal cell proliferant 
Scharlach II.® epidermal fibrils are much more easily exhibited, 
and the condition of the skin, both in respect of the extent 
to which cell hypertrophy takes place, and of the degree to 
which the chondriosomes become stained, can be modified by 
varying, on the one hand, the amount or concentration of 
Scharlach II introduced into the skin, and, on the other hand, 
by suitably choosing the period after injection at which the 
skin is sectioned, so that excellent preparations exhibiting 
the condition of the epidermal fibi’ils may iu this way be 
obtained. The effect of the dye, like that of haemoglobin in 
‘ J. Firket — “ Reclierclies sur la gcncse des fibrilles epidermiques 
cliez le poulet,” ‘ Aiiat. Anz.,’ 1911, Bd. xxxviii. 
- K. Herxheiiner. — “ Uber eigenti'imliclieFasern in der Epidermis and 
Epithel verscliiedener Schleimliaute,’’ ‘Arch. f. Dermatol, n. Syph.,’ 
1889, Bd. xxi. 
’ B. Fischer. — “ Die experimentelle Erzeugung atypisclier Epithel- 
wucheruiig and die Entsteliang bbsartige Gescliwiilste,” ‘ Manch. med. 
Wochenschr.,’ 1906, 53 Jahrg., S. 2041; J. O. Wakelin Barratt, ‘’Im- 
plantation of actively proliferating Epitheliam,” ‘ Proc. Roy. Soc.,’ 1907, 
ser. B., vol. Ixxix, p. 546. 
