456 Sargant . — The Formation of the 
chromatin is very much less conspicuous : instead of a heavy 
deposit of cloudy substance which in methyl-green prepara- 
tions is of a bright colour and completely masks the thread 
over which it lies, we have a scanty grey-green precipitate 
which makes the thread look ragged. This disappearance 
of amorphous chromatin is partly accounted for by the in- 
crease in size of the nucleus, for the area of each nuclear 
section is nearly four times as great as it was, but there can 
be little doubt that there has also been a real decrease in 
quantity of this substance. 
If we refer back to the series of preparations bridging this 
interval, we find that as the nucleus increases in size the 
network of dotted threads begins to occupy a peripheral 
position and the amorphous chromatin loses its cloudy look 
and is heaped more closely over the threads, the meshes 
being left clear. It is difficult to avoid the suspicion that the 
chromatin, which was at first in the cloudy probably dilute 
state which I have described, is now being deposited on the 
dots in the network. 
The nucleoli of the later resting-stage are still spherical 
and of well-defined outline, but they often look swollen. 
Careful examination of the chromatic network at this stage 
reveals drops adhering to it which are rounder and more 
regular in outline than the fragments of amorphous chromatin. 
In methyl-green and fuchsin preparations the larger of these 
clots are distinctly red, and they must therefore be con- 
sidered nucleolar. These are the first indications of the 
solution of the nucleolus which follows during synapsis. 
The transition between the late resting-stage just described 
and the contracted state known as synapsis is very in- 
structive, and is marked by (i) the increase in thickness of 
the chromatic thread and the appearance in it of a double 
row of dots ; (2) the gradual solution of the nucleolus ; and 
(3) the partial disappearance of the nuclear membrane. In 
the earlier transition stages the nucleolus is still more or 
less spherical and clearly outlined, but the number of small 
drops of nucleolar matter (//, Fig. 12 a) attached to the thread 
