S91 



Aufsätze. 



Nachdruck verboten. 



Reticulated and Yellow Elastic Tissues. 



By F. Mall, Fellow in Pathology, Johns Hopkins university, Baltimore. 



From the Pathological Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. 



(Preliminary report.) 



When a lymphatic gland is frozen and cut, and the sections 

 thus obtained shaken until all the leucocytes are removed, a net-work 

 of fibrils remains. These fibrils are formed by the prolongations of 

 multipolar cells, so at least they are described by the authors. — 

 In 1871 Ranvier, and a year later Bizzozero, demonstrated that 

 the fibrils are not the prolongations of multipolar cells, but that the 

 so called multipolar cells are cells lying at the junction of several reti- 

 culum fibrils and in this way apparently form branching cells. 



That this net-work of fibrils is not composed of multipolar cells can 

 very easily be proved by the method just mentioned. It is, however, 

 unnecessary to shake the "frozen" section, for a drop of KOH (10{*) added 

 under the cover glass will clear up all the cells and nothing but the 

 beautiful reticulum remains. This net-work is best seen with the 

 smallest diaphragm under the Abbe's condensor. The section can now 

 be washed and treated with different staining reagents, none of which 

 markedly stain the fibrils, but their contour is better brought out. 



The fact that the reticulum is not destroyed by KOH immediately 

 throws light upon the nature of the tissue, showing almost conclusively 

 that the fibrils do not belong to the white fibrous group. When sections 

 of reticulum (fresh lymph glands frozen, cut and shaken) are treated 

 with strong acetic acid the fibrils again remain as distinct as ever; 

 nor are they destroyed in boiling acid. In warm in or boiling KOH 

 reticulum is about as resistant as yellow elastic tissue. 



Since the reticulum fibrils are not the prolongations of multipolar 

 cells, but a net -work of fibrils that resist both acid and alkali, the 

 first impulse is to call reticulum and elastic tissue identical. Careful 

 examination, however, shows that they are not identical but closely 

 related. 



