Trans. N. Y. Ac. Sez. 32 
® Ga 49 @\ 
3 “ 
ee G 
’ Hit y 
« ny & \ 
Qreg 1S) 28! 5 5 
O@, ( & c 
ae > 5 {itr 9 QS @, 
See eae TL We Te 
5 ° o® oe ae =, Se 
Longitudinal Section x roo. 
F. Fibrous portion of cartilage in the centre. 
H. Hyaline portion, on either side, 
Ficure 1.—Plate of the Thyroid Cartilage of Adult. 
A. Perichondrium towards the mucus membrane. 
B. Perichondrium toward the skin. 
near the perichondrium, 
| 
Fic. 1 exhibits the appearance of a longitudinal secticn of the plate of the thyroid cartilage, wich an amplification of too diam. 
Nov. 21. 
of “pores” through which 
nutrient juices might pass. 
Budge and others believe 
in the presence of regular 
canals for this purpose, 
while Tillmanns and many 
with him believe that hya- 
line basis-substance con- 
sists of fine fibrils so close- 
ly held together by a 
cement-substance that the 
mass appears to be homo- 
geneous. It is supposed by 
some that this inter-fibril- 
lar cement-substance is a 
viscous soft material which 
permits the imbibition of 
nutrient liquid; by some 
that there are clefts or fis- 
sures; and by others that 
there are regular channels 
tunnelled in this cement- 
substance. On the other 
hand, Heitzmann, Spina, 
Flesch and others have 
found that there are cilia- 
like offshoots or prolonga- 
tions of the substance of 
the corpuscle penetrating 
into the basis-substance. 
Such prolongations might 
carry on nutrition. Ihave 
had the opportunity, six or 
seven years ago, to repeat 
Heitzmann’s observations 
under his own eyes and with his assistance ; but the results as to their 
correctness, at which I arrived, were to the best of my belief unin- 
fluenced by him. 
My own recent investigations have not only confirmed the existence 
of such offshoots and shown that they form an inter-connected reti- 
culum or network throughout the basis-substance, but I have discov- 
ered in several specimens small lumps in this network which, by all 
the tests applied to them, were proved to be lumps of living matter in 
