Nucleus of the Animal and Vegetable "- Celir 217 



made to do so ; which will be found at the end of this paper. 

 I would here merely add that the discovery now referred to, 

 is that of nuclei found by Goodsir in the basement membrane, 

 the presence of which nuclei induced him to call that mem- 

 brane a germinal membrane ; for, adopting my views on the 

 " function of the nucleus," he believes the nuclei in his ger- 

 minal membrane to absorb from the capillaries on one side 

 of tliat membrane, and give origin to the epithelium-cells on 

 the other. 



Here I must not omit to say, the orifice I have so gene- 

 rally met with in the nucleus, is most important in the func- 

 tion of absorption by that body, especially in centres such as 

 those present in germinal membranes, fig. ' 50, and in the 

 tubes, figs. 26 and 27'; that orifice being in cells, as well as in 

 certain of the Infusoria, a sort of mouth for nutrition ; and in 

 all it is equally an opening for fecundation, or what is equi- 

 valent to fecundation, for the introduction of a substance to 

 be subjected to that assimilative process which prepares the 

 cell for either reproduction or any other purpose. In tissue- 

 tubes, such as those in figs. 26 and 27, the nucleus with its 

 orifice seems to remain for the purpose of exercising an ap- 

 propriative power, — forming muscle in one instance, fibres of 

 the lens in another, and so on. 



Of the existence of the orifice in question, we have, I think, 

 a highly interesting proof in observations made last year by 

 Dr Harless ;* who, in examining cells of the ganglion-globules 

 in the lobus electricus of the Torpedo Galvanii, found nervous 

 filaments connected with what he terms the nucleus of an 

 inner cell. I have copied three of his figures ; and if these be 

 referred to, Plate I, fig. 44, it will be found that his nucleus 

 of the inner cell is my orifice, situated in a and /3 in a hyaline 

 nucleus, membranous at the surface,! and in y in a finely 

 granular nucleus or cytoblast, — being in the latter double. 

 The nervous filaments so connected, and, as Dr Harless says, 

 proceeding from the point in question, he describes as pellu- 

 cid, and as belonging to the medulla of the primitive fibres. 

 In some instances, he saw two such filaments connected with 



* MUller's Arcliiv, 1846, No. III., p. 283. 

 t The " hollow nucleus" of Schwann. 

 VOL. XLIII. NO. LXXXVI.— -OCTOBEll 1847. P 



