1 88 1. 31 Trans. N. V. Ac. Scz. 



less extent with debris, and so rode smoothly over it. Afterwards this 

 and the other valleys were more or less cleared out by the present 

 streams, but a portion of their contents is generally left in their beds, 

 the tunnel between this city and Hoboken being now driven in fact 

 through a part of this clay deposit. On the east side of the city a 

 narrow cafion, 300 to 400 feet deep, has been proved to underlie the 

 East River ; and it would have been a wiser and cheaper plan to con- 

 struct a tunnel through the clay bottom, for communication with Brook- 

 lyn, in place of the present costly and to some extent insecure bridge. 



Dr. Newberry finally expressed his interest in the careful study of the 

 erosion and sculpture of the Catskills and desire for its continuance. 



November 21, 1881. 

 Section of Biology. 



The President, Dr. J. S. Newberry, in the Chair. 



Thirty-one persons present. 



The following paper was read by Prof. Louis Elsberg, M. D.: 



On the Cell-Doctrine and the Bioplasson-Doctrine. 



Mr. President and Fellows of the Academy, Ladies and Gentlemen :— 

 Last May, at the meeting of the American Laryngolcgical Association, 

 I rendered account of some histological investigations of the cartilages 

 of the larynx, a report of which is published in the October number of 

 the Archives of Laryngology. As the structure of hyaline cartilage 

 has an important bearing on my subject of this evening, 1 crave your 

 attention for a few minutes for a brief review of those investigations. 



You know the larynx or voice-box consists of a framework of carti- 

 lage or gristle. This cartilage is called hyaline or glasslike, because it 

 is opalescent and looks like milk-glass. Having frequently been ex- 

 amined under the microscope, it has always been looked upon as one 

 of the simplest tissues, namely, as being composed of a hard matrix 

 or basis-substance, in which are imbedded a number of small softer 

 bodies. These softer bodies, the cartilage corpuscles, have since the 

 establishment of the cell-doctrine been called cartilage cells. As these 

 cells were known to be alive, the question which scientific men have 

 had to try to answer was : how can they obtain nutrition, being isolated 

 and enclosed in the firm, unyielding cartilage basis-substance.-' 



Without going too much into details, I may say that it was assumed 

 that nourishing liquid reaches the corpuscle either by imbibition and 

 diffusion or else through canals or fissures in the homogeneous basis- 

 substance. The idea of the existence of "juice-channels" originates 

 with Von Recklinghausen, although others before him had spoken 



