Chondriosomes (Mitochondria) and their Significance 177 
the latter. According to the same writer, the chondriosomes of 
Protozoa and of male animal cells show the reactions of fatty acids, 
while those of the ovum present the characters of ovolecithin, the 
fatty body being in each case regarded as associated with an 
albuminoid substance. 
The work of Faurd-Fremiet and of Lowschin suggests the 
possibility that chondriosomes may be simply emulsion forms of 
myelinogenous substances representing plastic food material. In 
this connexion mention may be made of experiments recorded by 
Russo (Arch. f. Zellforsch., Bd. 8, 1912), who found that the number 
of chondriosomes in rabbit ova increased greatly after the injection 
of lecithin into the animal. Thulin compared the chondriosomes 
in the muscle fibres of mature insects in the resting state and after 
work, and found that in the latter case there was a considerable 
diminution in the number of these bodies, and similar observations 
have been made by other workers in the case of secretory cells 
examined before and after secretion. 
Chondriosomes in Fungi. 
In one of his 1911 papers Guillermond described the occurrence 
of chondriosomes in the young asci of Pustularia vesiculosa , and 
in 1913 he gave further details and figures of these and also described 
chondriosomes in a considerable number of other Fungi ( PenicHlium , 
Botrytis, Endomyces , various Autobasidiomycetes, Yeasts, etc.). 
Meanwhile Janssens, Putte and Helsmortel (1913) had confirmed 
Guillermond’s discovery of chondriosomes in Pustularia and had 
also found them in Yeasts. In one of his 1913 papers Guillermond 
discusses the function of the chondriome (collective term for the 
chondriosomes of the cell or the plant) in Fungi. He distinguishes 
three kinds of reserve-substance products in the asci of Pustularia 
—glycogen, fat globules, and the “ metachromatic corpuscles ” of 
earlier writers—and claims to have shown that the last-named 
bodies arise from chondriosomes in much the same way that plastids 
anse from the chondriosomes of the higher plants, every transition 
between chondriokonts and metachromatic bodies having been 
observed. Hence he ascribes to the chondriosomes the same 
secretory function as that claimed for these bodies in both plant 
and animal gland cells. Lewitsky (1913) has confirmed Guillermond’s 
observations, having found chondriosomes in the mycelial hyphse, 
conidia and sexual organs of Albugo Blitii and A. Candida ; he 
found that like the chondriosomes of higher plants they were 
deformed by fixatives containing acetic acid or alcohol but were 
conserved by fixatives like osmic and chromic acids and formalin, 
and that they showed the various forms characteristic of chondrio¬ 
somes in higher plants. As they grew in size they became differ¬ 
entiated into a clear yellow central portion and a deeply staining 
envelope, the latter representing the substance of the original 
chondriosome itself. What the yellow substance produced in the 
chondriosomes may be Lewitsky was unable to determine, but it 
gave no appreciable darkening with osmic acid and thus seemed 
quite distinct from the fat globules in the cytoplasm which apparently 
arise simply by the fusion of originally minute oil drops—Lewitsky 
could find no trace of elaioplasts or oil-secreting bodies such as 
have been described for various plant and animal cells. 
