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not tlie existence in tlie subcutaneous cellular tissue of these 

 flat cells disposed upon the surface of the bundles, suggest to 

 us the idea of a vast space enclosed in the connective tissue 

 analogous to the serous cavities ? An interpretation founded 

 not only upon the facts which I have just demonstrated, but 

 still more upon the experiments of Von Recklinghausen, in 

 which impalpable bodies introduced into the serous cavities 

 have penetrated directly into the Ijanphalics and from thence 

 into the blood. 



With inferior animals, the frog for instance, the vast sacs 

 which are found under the skin, also inclosed in the abdo- 

 men, so similar to the bursas mucosfe of man, are both serous 

 cavities and lymphatic sacs ; this is proved by the most de- 

 cisive experiments. With man and the superior animals, the 

 experimental demostration is not yet complete, but it will 

 doubtless be forthcoming. 



The tubes of the tendons, which at first sight present so 

 peculiar a structure, appear to me to have a very general sig- 

 nificance ; thus, they may be considered, Avith some reason, 

 as serous cavities in miniature and at the same time as canals 

 for the circulation of the plasma. 



The imj)ortance of connective tissue in pathological new 

 formations had not escaped Bichat. The fleshy buds and the 

 tumours of the different organs appear to him to have their 

 point of dejjarture in interstitial cellular tissue. He even 

 perceived perfectly that cirrhosis of the liver is only due to 

 the cellular tissue, and that in this disease, the glandular 

 elements are preserved and continue their function. The 

 passage in his ' General Anatomy,' where he speaks of it, is 

 so striking, that I feel called upon to quote it in his own 

 words : " In many organic aff'ections of the liver, steatoma- 

 tous tumours are observed, which give to this organ a knotted 

 unequal form, and which occupying only the cellular tissue, 

 leave intact the granular tissue, which separates as usual the 

 bile, which experiences no alteration in its flow." 



In his important and numerous works Virchow has de- 

 veloped and extended the idea of Bichat, and further he has 

 shown the importance of the cells of connective tissue in the 

 development of pathological new formations. 



In making the fleshy growths of the bones proceed from a 

 cellular tissue that he did not see, but admitted because of 

 this fact alone, that fleshy growths are formed in the bones, 

 Bichat has passed beyond the limits of anatomical observa- 

 tion and has committed an error. Virchow has endeavoured 

 to avoid it, in leaving to Bichat's generalization all its 

 breadth. In order to do so, the celebrated professor of 



