130 DR. MITCHELL BRUCE. 



Schweigger SeicleP accepted it evidently without further 

 minute investigation. Fleming^ did the same. Bizzozero 

 and Giiterbock, on the other hand, contradicted it. Bizzo- 

 zero^ described the cells of the tendon as branched, flattened, 

 oblong, and nucleated elements, standing with their long 

 axis parallel to that of the bundles. Giiterbock^ looked upon 

 the bundles as having between them chains of stafF-shajjed 

 nucleated cells. 



Quite recently, in a treatise on the subject of considei-able 

 extent,^ Boll has contradicted every previous view, both 

 older and more recent, i. e. both before and after B-an- 

 vier, but more especially that of this histologist, whose 

 opinion on the cellular structure of tendon he has essentially 

 disproved. 



It is unnecessary for me in this paper to go back and 

 speak of the more precise opinions of the older authorities 

 on the subject, as this has been already most fully done by 

 Boll, to whose work I accordingly refer my readers. The 

 views of this histologist himself, however, I sliall consider at 

 some length. 



In the embryonal tendon of the diaphragm Boll describes 

 the cellular elements as granular, elastic, quadrilateral plates 

 (in the adult they are the same, but homogeneous instead of 

 granular) ; these are arranged in a row behind each other, 

 and are bent to correspond to the tendon bvmdlcs. Besides 

 possessing the above characters, each plate is furnished with 

 a median stripe, which Boll calls the " elastic strij^e ;" it occu- 

 pies the whole longitudinal section of the cell running 

 parallel to the long axis of the bundles, and is, according to 

 its describer, a thickening of the cell-substance, than the 

 rest of which it accordingly appears more deeply coloured 

 when stained with carmine. It is evident that a row of cell- 

 plates will give a corresjDonding row of such stripes, that is, 

 a continuous stripe ; and this " elastic" stripe will assume a 

 straight or wavy appearance varying with the condition of 

 relaxation of the tendon. 



^ Schweigger Seidel, " Ueber die Grundsubstanz und die Zelleu der Horn- 

 haut des Auges." ' Arbeitea aus der Pliysiol. Anstalt zu Leipzig,' 1S69, 

 p. 144. 



' Fleming, " Ueber Bildung und Riickbildung der Fettzelle im Bindege- 

 webe." ' Max Scliultze's Arehiv,' vii Bd., 1 Heft, p. 39. 



^ Bizzozero, " Sulla Struttura del Tessuto Teudino," estratto dal Morgagni, 

 'Ueber den Bau des Selmengewebes.' (See ' Quart. Cliron. of Histology.') 



■* (xilterbock, " Zur Lebre von den Bindegewebskorperchen in den Sehnen." 

 ' Centralblatt,' 1870, No. 3, p. 33. 



* Boll, " Untersuchun<Teu iiber den Bau und die Entwickelung der 

 Gewebe." ' Max Schultze's Arehiv,' vii Bd., 4 Heft, p. 275. 



