The effects of cold and colchicine on mitosis in the newt

Abstract

Larvae of Triton vulgaris, immersed either in water at 3[degree]C for periods up to 192 hrs., or in 1% colchicine at 18-20[degree]C up to 72 hrs., were examined. Cold stops mitosis at metaphase; colchicine arrests it at metaphase, although the cytoplasm continues into anaphasic swelling. 5 types of nuclear arrest are described and explanations for them are offered in terms of disturbances of centrosome and centromere, related to the "tactoid" theory of Bernal (The Cell and Protoplasm, 1940).