180 QUARTERLY CHRONICLE OF MICROSCOPICAL SCIENCE. 



thickness of the curved cellular plate to produce, when seen 

 either from the side or from the front, the appearance of a 

 stripe ; and thinks that a folding of the cell could only rarely 

 produce such an appearance. 



Bizzozero (" On the Structure of Tendinous Tissue," 

 ' Moleschott's Untersuchungen,' vol. xi, p. 36, 1872) re- 

 capitulates the results of researches chiefly published ia 

 Italian journals in the years 1865 to 1868 ; and of a later 

 series of investigations, of which only preliminary notices 

 have as yet appeared. The two questions Avhich he 

 especially set himself to solve were, whether the saft- 

 candlchen Cjdasmatic canals) of Recklinghausen really exist, 

 and if so, what do they contain ? Tlie appearances first 

 described by this histologist as produced by silver solutions 

 were seen by his methods, and also by others, viz. by the use 

 of iron solution with ferrocyanide of potassium, producing a 

 deposit of Prussian blue in the tissues (a method first used 

 by Leber for the cornea) ; by chloride of gold, and without 

 any colouring, merely by adding very dilute acetic or sul- 

 phuric acid. By all these methods he saw the figures described 

 by Recklinghausen, viz. pale figures in a deeply coloured 

 field, connected by small channels or processes. In the 

 tendon these figures are elongated, corresponding to the long 

 axis of the tendon, and measured "07 to '1 mm. long by '009 

 to 'Oil mm. Avide. The slender tendons from the hind foot 

 of the frog were used without any preparation, but sections 

 of human and other tendons gave corresponding results. 



The second question to be determined was whether these 

 spaces are simply channels for the conveyance of plasma, 

 which may occasionally contain cells, as supposed by 

 Recklinghausen, or whether they correspond to a network of 

 protoplasmic bodies. In order to decide this question isola- 

 tion of the cells is necessary, and this can only be done by 

 lacerating or tearing out the tissue. This test had in fact 

 been already applied by Langhans soon after the publication 

 of Recklinghausen's researches, and had yielded to the former 

 observer only very small spindle-shaped cells, by no means 

 corresponding to the shape of tlie silver figures. Bizzozero 

 isolated the cellular elements by macerating the tissue in 

 jMiiller's solution for two or three months, or else for a shorter 

 time in osmic acid or chloride of gold. The cells which he 

 thus obtained were large, flat bodies, exactly corresponding 

 to the figures produced by silver and other methods. Their 

 shape is very irregular, though often elongated in the 

 direction of the nucleus, but chiefly remarkable for its 

 extreme tenuity, appearing in profile like a mere line. They 



