Abstract
1. The Golgi apparatus of nerve cells of spinal ganglion in the guinea pig was demonstrated by means of the present author's protease-Nile blue sulphate technique.
2. The Golgi apparatus thus demonstrated accords fully to those prepared after the classical osmium-impregnation methods when employed properly. This fact proves that the Golgi apparatus of nerve cells assumes, at least in the fixed condition, the reticular feature which is familiar to us in the classical works.
3. As fixatives before the digestion procedures various reagents, simple or mixed, were employed. The results obtained from these attempts are summarized in Table I in the section of material and methods. The most excellent fixatives found by this attempts proved to be the combinating techniques as follows: formalin-trypsin, osmic acid-trypsin, Champy's fluid-pepsin, Champy's fluid-trypsin, corrossive sub-limate-trypsin, potassium bichromate-pepsin, potassium bicromate-trypsin, picric acid-trypsin, and picric acid-pepsin. The percentages of the reagents and of the enzymes, and the reaction times are detailed in Table 1.
4. The Nissl bodies and the mitochondria were frequently impregnated by the osmium impregnation. This phenomenon seems to be indicative of the special physiological condition of the cytoplasm in which the lipoid is unmasked from the protein.
5. The mitochondria seem to be dissolved by these techniques without an exception. The Nissl bodies remain undigested by formalin-trypsin, formalin-pepsin, corrossive sublimate-trypsin technique. Their capacity of blackening by the osmic acid and their demonstrability by the pro-tease-Nile blue sulphate techniques are suggesting the existence of lipoidal substances in them. This assumption is on the other hand supported by various experimental data appeared in the literature, e.g. the experiment of axon section made by Legendre (1910) etc.
6. The vital staining of the genuine Golgi apparatus has been attempted. Applying Nile blue sulphate and crysoidin upon the fresh material sectioned by means of frozen method the net-like Golgi apparatus which fully corresponds to that impregnated with osmic acid was observed stained with a considerable clearness. Here, the nerve cells in the frozen sections were surmised to be still living from the fact that their nuclei were quite free from staining and their cytoplasm showed no symptoms of death as vacuolation or granulation.
7. The solubility of the Golgi substance was studied. Likewise those in other tissue cells known in the foregoing works made by the present author, the Golgi apparatus of nerve cells in the guinea pig, contains the protein digestible by trypsin and the lipoid soluble in aceton. The idea that the Golgi apparatus contains the lecithin has been denied by this study of solubility.
