Cited by C.F. Hodge, 'Changes in Ganglion Cells from Birth to Senile Death. Observations on Man and Honey-Bee', Journal of Physiology 17 (1-2) (1894), pp. 128-134.
Description:

Explanation of Plate IV (figs. 1-4)

'Fig. 1. From 1st cervical ganglion of human fcetus killed by accident of birth.

Fig. 2. From 1st cervical ganglion of man dying of old age at 92 years.

Figs. 1 and 2 from specimens prepared by osmic acid method, 1 0/0, 4 hours, cut together in paraffin and drawn with camera lucida under magnification, Zeiss, 4 mm. Obj., Oc. 8, of 500 diameters.

Fig. 3. Section of antennary lobe of young honey-bee, No. 1, killed on its emergence from the brood cell.

Fig. 4. Section of antennary lobe of old honiey-bee, No. 1, takel just as it died presumably of old age.

Figs. 3 atid 4 from osinic acid specimens, 1 % for 2 hours. Camera outlines, Zeiss, 2 mm. oil immersion, Oc. 8 = x 1000 diameters.' (134)

 

Figs. 1-2 in text:

'Most striking, differences occur in the cells of the spinal ganglia. Possibly the most important of these is a failure of the nucleolus to stain with osmic acid in cells of the old man. Considering the role which this organ plays in processes of reproduction, and it possibly plays no less a role in subsequent physiological function, this fact may have a wide significance. Coupled with this is the condition of the nucleus, considerably shrunken and with irregular jagged outline. In case of fatigue, the nucleus shrinks and at the same time grows dark. In the old age specimens, the nucleus has shrunken and remains light, not taking the stain more heavily than the cell protoplasm. Nucleoli are large and densely stained in corresponding cells of the foetus, and nuclei are large, round and clear, not a single nucleus being at all shrunken or dark. Camera drawings of the two are shown in figs. 1 and 2. The protoplasm in the old man is seen to be largely filled with pigment and fat, both substances appearing black in osmic acid specimens, the pigment being yellow and the fatty masses being represented by large vacuoles in sections by the corrosive sublimate method. The cells of the feetus contain almost no pigment at all.' (130-131)

 

Figs. 1, 3-4 in text:

'Sections of the 21 young brains appeared under the microscope as much alike as thouigh they, had been successive sections cut from the same brain. The nuclei are large and clear. They are, in fact, so large in proportion to size of cells that they often crowd one another into polyhedral shapes. This is shown in fig. 3, drawn from the anteninal lobe of young bee No. 1. Protoplasm appears dense and evenly granular. In the old brains, protoplasm is all but absent, being reduced to a few shreds and granules between the large vacuoles which fill the cell. The nuclei are shrivelled in many cases almost beyond recognition. Here, too, as we fouind in the human ganglion cells, the nuclei in senescence decrease in size but do not grow dark and granular as in fatigue. This general result is not so uniform for old as for young brains, and naturally so; because it is of course impossible to obtain old bees of uniform age. The age-signs by which they were chosen are no more uniform than the appearance of the brains. The above description applies literally to the extreme cases; and not one of the old brains failed to show differences of the character indicated by which they could easily be distinguished from young brains. Compare figs. 3 and 4.' (132)

 

Figs. 3-4 in text:

'The nerve cells of the honey-bee do not possess a sharply defined nucleolus like that of vertebrates. If anything of the kind exists in these cells, it must be represented by irregular granules, as indicated in fig. 3. These, as may be seen in fig. 4, are largely absent from nuclei of aged cells.' (133)