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corpuscles also occur, as was formerly brought into promi- 
nence by Billroth, and more lately by Ranvier (without 
alluding to Billroth). From the ends of these flat and gene- 
rally multipolar corpuscles there often proceed many delicate 
fibres ; at all events, the inoblasts are sufficiently numerous 
in the tendon to give rise by means of their prolongations 
to all the connective-tissue fibres. 
All the fibres here described of course agree with what 
are called connective-tissue fibres in their chemical relations. 
More especially do they become invisible when treated with 
acids or alkalies, and hence cannot be confounded with the 
scanty elastic fibres of the tendon. Their length, which has 
never been seriously taken into account, is considerable, per- 
haps to be reckoned by centimétres, but in no case so great 
as that of the tendon itself. 
When I proved in 1863 that even the longest muscles of 
the human body consist exclusively of spindle-shaped, trans- 
versely striated fibres, whose length does not exceed three or 
four centimétres, it was natural to ask the question how long 
the connective-tissue fibres of the corresponding tendons 
might be. The length of tendons may even, as is known, 
exceed a foot, but it can easily be shown that the connective- 
tissue fibres must be very much shorter. 
Since, as was shown above, one or several fibres may pro- 
ceed from each end of each inoblast, these must be closely 
applied to the adjacent fibrils. Starting from the attachment 
of a tendon to a bone, it is obvious that each inoblast sends 
out fibres in the direction of the muscle. The direction and 
abundance of the inoblasfs may, however, be easily deter- 
mined after the addition of acids, since each of them possesses 
a central portion (the connective-tissue nucleus), which re- 
sists these reagents. As is well known, these nuclei lie in 
longitudinal rows. Accordingly, if the prolongations of the 
inoblasts, which are near the bony attachment of the tendon, 
reached the muscle—that is to say, if they were as long as 
the tendon itself—the latter must be tapering or conical. The 
apex of the cone would be at the bone, the base at the inser- 
tion of the tendon into the muscle. Tendons are, however, 
in contradistinction to the conical form, everywhere of equal 
thickness, forming flattened cylinders. The prolongations of 
the inoblasts must accordingly come to an end within the 
tendon, and cannot attain any considerable length, since if 
they did there must be some indication of a conical shape, at 
least near the insertion into bone. If this reasoning be not 
admitted, it must be concluded that the fibres or prolongations 
of opposite ends of the inoblasts, must at least near the bony 
