LUCEUNARLE AND T II E lit ALLIES. 99 



tissue in tlio oral face ot" the unibcUa, so the cliondropliys is to tlie walls and 

 org-ans of tlio aboial region. But we are inclined to class the latter with inelastic 

 fibrous connective tissue, like KuUiker's reticulatloe coimectlce iistme, or soniethin"' 

 between that and fihro-cartilaije. If the fibre-like bodies {(■ ) in the chondrophvs 

 are, as we hope to demonstrate, of the nature of cells or '• elementary parts," we 

 think we should be not far from correct if we set this stratum down in the cate- 

 gory of carfl/(i(je, the fibre-cells taking the place of cartilage-cells, so called. In 

 the earliest stages of growth tlie true, cellular walls, the gastrophragma (/) and 

 the ectopliragma (/), of the aljoral side of the umbella antl of the pedicel, lie 

 closely apposed to each other; but in course of time tliey Ijegin to separate and 

 the intervening space is at tlie same time filled by an amorplious hyaline substance 

 in which are imbedded irregular bands (fig. 12!), c') of less transi)arent matter, 

 sparsely dotted by granules^ These bands at first are continued from w<dl to wall, 

 but as development proceeds they become clearer, less granular, more elongate and 

 straightened, and thinned out at the middle, so that they resemble a very slender 

 hour-glass (/.'/.s. 82, 83, c). In the last condition they have, in a general way, the 

 appearance of structureless fibrillin traversing the thickness of the amorphous hya- 

 line substance. The latter and the former constitute the chondrophijs. In their 

 earliest or granular condition they evidently are amorphous bodies, differentiated 

 out of the " hyaline substance ;" and, notwithstanding their form, may well be 

 identified with the nncU'us of an "elementary particle." Their subsequent devel- 

 opment has all the appearance of the strongest proof of the truth of tin's view, for 

 tliey are finally invested by a distinct membrane (firfs. IOC), 107), wbieli can be 

 nothing else than the homologue of a cell-membrane. These fibrillin then are 

 extremely elongate cells in a low state of development, in wliich the periphery has 

 become differentiated into a distinct loall, Avhile the contents ((/-) have remained 



Schwam) remains passive and unchanged, except in growth by direct proliferation, and that the 

 nucleus draws from it nutriment which it changes chemically into cell-material ; Yirehow attributes 

 to the nucleus, or rather to the cell, the faculty of producing changes in the intercellular .substance 

 itself; each cell having a well-defined "cell-territory" over which it presides, at one time causing a 

 filjrillation of the blastema {fibrous tissue), or an increase in bulk of the same wilhoutany percep- 

 tible change, as at the ends of the bones where cai-tilaije prevails, or another form, among \\h'. 

 membranous supports of the body, conneelive tissue. Bealo (various works, and particularly " How 

 to Work with the Microscoi)e " 4th ed., 1.S08) admits the existence of a cytoblastenia (his "nutrient 

 inanimate matter," lifeless pnbulum), yet docs not identify it, like Schwam, with intercellular sub- 

 stance, but says that "oval bodies^' (nuclei, or more or less developed I'elis) originate spontaneously, 

 i. e., hy free cell develojimenl, and then by a process of absorption and exfoliation convert tin? sur- 

 rounding blastema into various forms of interstitial substance, such as the ordinary intercellular 

 material, or cartilage, or fibrous tendon, etc. etc. 



((') Putting it more concisely, now, we ma}' say that while Yirchow asserts that cells never spon- 

 taneously originate themselves, but continue their kind by proliferation, by " an external law of 

 continuous development,'" and also cause the interstitial substance to groiv, and to change into 

 fibrillae, etc. etc., as a mere outskirting appendage of the cells, inseparable from them, Schwam, on 

 the other hand, attributes to cells the power of self-originators l)y fi-ee cell development out of a 

 cytoblastenia, and that it is the latter, the cytoblastema, which is independent, self-generative, i. e., 

 proliferous, ab initio ad finem; and finally, Beale differs mainly fnun Yirchow, and agrees with 

 Schwam, by insisting upon free-cell-devclopment, but not in a getuiine cytoblastenia. 



