Are Spindle Fibres and Mid-body Granules Artefacts?

Abstract

IN consonance with the colloidal conception of protoplasm, it is generally believed that the fibres and the mid-body granules of the mitotic spindle are coagulation effects and are not an image of reality. The spindle is conceived as a fusiform area of protoplasm having high viscosity. This may be true in some cases, but we wish to record very briefly some of our observations on the living male germ cells of the grasshopper Chrotogonus sp. and the common house cricket Gryllus domesticus made under the phase-contrast microscope, after studying the spermatogenesis of these two insects by the normal laboratory technique of fixing and staining.