373 



These partitions are simply the superficial layer of the 

 bundles of connective tissue, which in the tendons are all 

 parallel. This layer, upon the nature of which nothing has 

 been decided, is coloured more easily by carmine than the 

 connective fibrils, and it preserves its colour in an acid liquid ; 

 whilst the fibrils lose it completely, even immediately after 

 they have been coloured. I shall return to these particulars 

 when I have to sj)eak of the subcutaneous cellular tissue. 

 When in the tendons two bundles of connective tissue adhere, 

 it might be said that they are separated by a single partition. 

 The cellular tubes pass between the bundles, and in the 

 points which they occupy upon the transverse sections it 

 seems as if there were simply a thickening of the parti- 

 tion. These are the points which appear to be the bodies of 

 ramified cells. In this section (fig. 5) may be perceived 

 an irregular corpuscle, which has certainly until now been 

 taken for a nucleus. But on the thicker oblique sections it 

 may be observed, on lowering the object-glass, that this cor- 

 puscle corresponds to the surface of a section of -a cylinder 

 which intrudes itself into the thickness of the tendon, and is 

 parallel to its axis. In one word, this corpuscle corresponds 

 to the section of a cellular tube. The partitions which diverge 

 from the space containing the cellular tube separate the con- 

 nective bundles, as has been said above. But from these par- 

 titions arise fibrils which run in different directions, of which 

 some (fig. 5) have been cut transversely by the razor. The 

 interpretation of such preparations, in the sense of plasmatic 

 cells, depends, then, upon an illusion. On the surface. of 

 the tendons a bed of ordinary connective tissue is invariably 

 met with, containing flat cells, yielding star-like forms by the 

 impregnation of silver. This tissue establishes a communica- 

 tion between the tendon and the ambient cellular tissue, or 

 serves to support an epithelial layer (fig. 6, a) in the case 

 where the tendon slides in a synovial sheath, such as may be 

 observed in the tendons of the tail of mammalia. It is the 

 ordinary connective layer of the surface of the tendons which 

 has probably yielded to Recklinghausen the star-like figures 

 limited by the deposit of silver, and has induced him to admit 

 this form in all the cells of the tendons.' 



III. Between the structure of the subcutaneous cellular 

 tissue and that of the tendons there are very material dif- 

 ferences ; yet between the transverse section of a tendon and 



^ On the contrary, Recklinghausen distinguishes clearly enough between 

 the two, as any observer may also do for himself. Experienced micro- 

 scopists in England accept von llecklinghausen's observations as exact. — 

 Ed. Q. J. M. S. 



