374 



a section made in the subcutaneous cellular tissue, after colour- 

 ing with carmine and the action of acetic acid, the resemblance 

 is striking; the star-like figures are still observed, ramified and 

 anastomosed, in the centre of which a red coloured corpuscle 

 is met with. The limit of the figures is very well defined, 

 and appears to be formed by a membrane which is coloured 

 by the carmine ; while, if the preparation has been well made, 

 the intermediate substance is colourless. This truly striking 

 cellular apjiearance is simjjly an optical delusion. In order to 

 be convinced of this, it is necessary to have recourse to other 

 methods of preparation. 



Dissociation in water, a process employed since the be- 

 ginning of histology, had already furnished facts to Henle 

 which are not favorable to the theory of plasmatic cells. 

 By the aid of this process he saw in the subcutaneous cellular 

 tissue only connective bundles surrounded by annular or 

 spiral fibres, simple varieties of that which he calls the fibres 

 of the nucleus, and finally elastic fibres, arising also, according 

 to him, from the fibres of the nucleus. 



But we must allow that such an analysis was very in- 

 adequate, and that it passed over the most important elements 

 — namely, the cells. Even though the cells of connective 

 tissue have not the form nor the affinity which Virchow had 

 assigned to them, there remains no less to that celebrated 

 professor the great merit of having established their existence 

 and signification in jjathological transactions. 



The dissociation of the cellular tissue in water, as it was 

 practised by Henle, and as it is still done at the present time, 

 gives bad preparations ; because, in teazing out the tissue 

 with the needles, the fibres are mixed, and thus lose their 

 relation. At the same time, the cells are swollen, and even 

 destroyed, and their remains are hidden by the intermixed 

 fibrils. 



To avoid these inconveniences, I have had recourse to 

 another method. It consists in injecting into the cellular 

 tissues, by the aid of a Pravaz syringe, gelatine maintained 

 at a temperature of 37° Centigrade, a solution of nitrate of 

 silver of 1 to the 1000, or simply serum. It is necessary 

 to make this injection in an adult animal which has just 

 been killed, and before the body becomes cold. Thus 

 is produced an artificial oedema. If the injection has 

 been roughly made, the substance accumulates in a cir- 

 cumscribed spot, in the centre of which there are a few 

 fibres of connective tissue. If, on the contrary, the in- 

 jection has been carefully made, and if the part be 

 rubbed at the moment of applying the injection, the sub- 



