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to multimiclear liver-cells, and by Koster to cells which had 

 wandered away from the blood-vessels. 



If, again, the remaining portions of the remarks of Holm 

 and Koster be considered, it will soon be seen that the latter 

 observer had before him a process differing from that brought 

 under the notice of Holm. In the course followed by Holm 

 one meets with a scarcely appreciable suppuration ; here the 

 formation of fibres predominates. Koster, on the other hand, 

 speaks of a process in which suppuration was the prominent 

 fact. 



The positive assertions made by Holm were opposed by as 

 positive assertions from Josef, who maintained that the liver- 

 cells were not converted into fibres. This observer held that the 

 liver-cells fell away, and that the fibres of the subsequent 

 matrix grew out from the connective tissue of remote 

 acini. 



Josef, in the course of numerous experiments upon animals, 

 found, as he believed, that from a remote acinus a host of 

 young elements pressed towards the injuring body, and on 

 one fine day discovered that connective-tissue-fibres had been 

 formed at a spot where some few days before only accumu- 

 lated spindle-shaped cells could be made out. How it could 

 have happened that connective tissue was observed under the 

 microscope where for some days previously only spindle- 

 shaped cells could be seen, the author does not tell us. Such 

 an assertion presupposes that a certain part of the liver had 

 been subjected to microscopic examination without having 

 been torn from its connection with the living animal. Tliis, 

 we know, cannot be practised with our present means of 

 investigation. 



One other positive assertion made by Holm is opposed by 

 Josef. The former observer maintained that the liver-cells 

 arrange themselves in layers about the inserted needle ; Josef, 

 on the other hand, asserted that the cells about the needle 

 undergo disintegration. A dog's liver Avas punctured by 

 copper wire. This wire, after it had been allowed to remain 

 in the liver for forty-eight hours, was withdrawn, and it was 

 then found, on examining the adherent portions of liver, that 

 the cells had been destroyed. 



This assertion does not seem to be an improvement upon 

 that relating to the formation of connective tissue. To con- 

 vince oneself that the liver-cells about the needle disintegrate, 

 it is necessary to make a section of the hardened organ at the 

 particular spot, and to observe the detritus in this section. 

 This, however, Josef did not do. He tore away fresh liver- 

 tissue, and such tissue, indeed, as had been altered by tlie 



