OBSERVATIONS ON STKUCTURE OF CELLS AND NUCLEI. 335 



tinuous network with those of neighbouring cells. The 

 nucleus is oval, and measures about 0"013 by 0"011 mm.; 

 it contains a very beautiful and delicate network of fibrils ; 

 thtse pass through the nuclear limiting membrane into the 

 fibrillar substance of the cell, with which they become 

 identified. 



(a) The intranuclear network stains well and contains here 

 as well as in those of the cells of other kinds, previously 

 named, bright dots, owing to the fibrils being looked at 

 in their optical transverse section or at their point of anasto- 

 mosis, and larger irregular particles — thickened or con- 

 tracted (shrunk) portions of the network. I have seen 

 nuclei whose network had so much shrunk as to form a 

 central irregular mass, in which the individual fibrils could 

 be distinguished only with difficulty. There could be no 

 doubt as to its nature, although at first it resembled in a 

 high degree what corres[)onds to the * nucleolus ' of the 

 authors. In these instances, therefore, I see additional 

 evidence for the correctness of the view first expressed by 

 Langhans (I.e.), viz. that the nucleoli owe their origin, 

 probably in most instances, to the shrunk condition of the 

 intranuclear network. The nuclear membrane shows in 

 those instances in which the network is not shrunk too 

 much, besides the faint outline representing the limiting 

 parts of the network, in addition a thicker boundary, 

 such as had been mentioned to exist in* the nuclei of the 

 epithelial cells of stomach. 



(j3) The fibrillar substance or intracellular network is 

 arranged round the nucleus in a very unequal manner, such 

 as is represented in fig. 23, and it is in this part especially, 

 and also in the thicker prolongations of it, that the character 

 of a fibrillar network can be made out most distinctly. It is 

 possessed of numerous processes unequal in thickness and 

 length; they are all very richly branched. Of characteristic 

 appearance are the irregular thickenings in the course of the 

 processes and the club — or pear-shaped prolongations at the 

 point of branching of these processes. 



The branching of tbe processes is very rich ; the anasto- 

 mosis of processes of neighbouring cells is rarer than it 

 would appear at first sight. Only in rare instances have I 

 seen an anastomosis of two processes coming out of the same 

 cell. In many cases the processes terminate either club- 

 shaped or in the form of an irregular plate. I need hardly 

 say that in this description of connective tissue corpuscles I 

 refer to specimens or parts of them in winch the endothelial 

 covering of the surtate has become over lar-jer or smaller 



