64 Wager and Peniston .— Cytological Observations on 
In less vigorous fermentations the cells sink before a maximum amount of 
glycogen occurs. If the foam from a vigorous culture containing a consider¬ 
able quantity of glycogen is stirred into fresh Pasteur’s solution so that the 
air-bubbles escape, the cells at once sink. 
The glycogen-filled cells are apparently capable of retaining their 
vitality for some time. It was found that after remaining quiescent in 
exhausted Pasteur’s solution for ten days no perceptible decrease had taken 
place in the amount of glycogen present, and most of the cells were still 
capable of a vigorous fermentation when placed in Pasteur’s solution, 
although the time that elapsed before their activity became obvious was 
much longer than when the transference to the fresh solution took place 
earlier. 
Volutin. 
There are present in the yeast cell, under certain conditions, granules 
giving a characteristic reaction with methylene blue. These have been 
described at some length by Guilliermond (’ 02 ) and Arthur Meyer (’ 04 ). 
Guilliermond (‘ 02 ) considers that they are identical with the metachromatic 
granules of Babes (’ 89 , ’ 95 ) and the red granules of Butschli (’ 90 , ’ 96 ), that 
they consist of two substances, an outer deeply stainable one, and a less 
deeply stainable inner one, and that they possess none of the microchemical 
reactions of nuclein. Meyer (’ 04 ) states that they are of the same nature 
as the granules discovered by Ernst (’88), and he suggests for them (’ 03 ) 
the name Volutin . He points out that in their behaviour to stains and 
reagents volutin granules certainly bear some resemblance to nucleic acid. 
He does not agree with Guilliermond’s view that they consist of two 
substances, but is inclined to think that they are a combination of nucleic 
acid with an unknown base. With this view Guilliermond has later 
apparently come to agree (’ 06 ). Among the principal reactions of volutin 
granules given by Meyer may be mentioned the intense staining in 
methylene blue or carbol fuchsin and the persistence of the colour when 
washed in i per cent, solution of sulphuric acid, their solubility in boiling 
water, in eau de javelle, and in mineral acids, and their insolubility in 
boiling water after treatment for thirty minutes or longer with formol. 
A full account of various other reactions is given in Meyer’s paper (’ 04 ). 
According to Guilliermond (’ 02 ) these granules are contained chiefly in the 
vacuole (nuclear vacuole, Wager, ’ 98 ), and upon this ground he assumes 
that they are the granules described by Wager (’ 98 ) as chromatin. He takes 
considerable pains to show that they cannot be regarded as chromatin, and 
that they have no connexion with the nucleus. Meyer, however, points 
out that the volutin granules are found chiefly outside the main vacuole in 
the cytoplasm. In the numerous cells which have recently come under 
our observation, we find, in conformity with the conclusion of Wager (’ 98 ) 
