262 DR. B£ALE, ON THE TISSUES. 



vegetable starch-holding cells the lamellae and pores above 

 described may be seen. 



According to this view, the starch-granule is formed on 

 the same principle as a calculus, and the deposition of the 

 starchy matter from solution is purely physical, but its /ormc- 

 tion depends upon the peculiar properties of the particles of 

 germinal matter, which select and combine substances in a 

 special manner while passing through the various stages of 

 their existence. At last their active powers cease, and their 

 constituents become resolved into starch amongst other sub- 

 stances."^ 



Starchy matter in animal tissues. — One of the most in- 

 teresting points which has been demonstrated during the last 

 few years, in connection with the chemical changes occurring 

 in animals, is the discovery that matters nearly allied to 

 starch and cellulose were formed in them as well as in 

 plants. C. Schmidt, in the year 1845, proved the existence 

 of a substance of the cellulose series in certain Ascidians ; 

 and Virchow, about the year 1854, made the very important 

 discovery of an amyloid substance in the human subject. 

 This was found in the form of roundish bodies in the deep 

 layers of the membrane lining the cerebral ventricles, and 

 that which lines the canal of the spinal cord. Since this 

 time amyloid matter has been demonstrated in many other 

 situations. In the liver it is found in considerable quantity, 

 and, as Dr. Pavy has shown, is a substance which is so 

 easily and rapidly converted into sugar after death, that 

 Bernard was led to conclude that sugar was actually formed 

 in the liver in considerable quantity in health. In certain 

 cases of disease a substance containing amyloid matter accu- 

 mulates to an enormous extent in the lobules of the liver, 

 especially in their central part, giving rise to the amyloid or 

 waxy degeneration (scrofulous liver, albuminous liver, spek- 

 krankheit). This amyloid substance is one of several com- 

 pounds into which the formed matei'ial of the liver elementary 

 part is resolved. In health it is carried away in a soluble 

 form, and probably is soon converted into other compounds, 

 which are at last resolved into carbonic acid. In diabetes it 

 is converted into sugar, and in certain scrofulous cases it 



can be no doubt tliat tlie changes wliicli usually lead to the formation of 

 starch have in these instances been modified, so as to cause the altered mat- 

 ter to be de|)osited in a diiferent position. 



* Tlie opinions generally held on the formation of the starch-granule are 

 different to the conclusions in the text ; vide a paper by Mr. Busk, in vol i, 

 New Series of the 'Trans, of the Microscopical Society,' 1853, p. 58; and 

 Professor AUman, "On the Pi'obable Structure of the Slarch-Granule," 

 ' Quarterly Jourual of Microscopical Science,' vol. ii, p. 163. 



