98 Dr. Barry on the Spiral Structure of Muscle. 



cylinder, and so on. All these rows of cell-germs, arisen through 

 division and subdi^^sion of the nuclei of the primitive cells which 

 arranged themselves in necklace-like order to form the first 

 muscle tubes, as well as the germs of those primitive cells them- 

 selves, are descended through division from those substances in 

 the o\Tim which again had arisen from the fecundated germinal 

 spot or nucleus of the germinal vesicle. 



In a brief recapitulation concerning hyaline, the author states 

 his Researches in Embryology as well as his observations on the 

 Corpuscles of the Blood (Phil. Trans. 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841), 

 to have afforded him abundant opportunity for becoming ac- 

 quainted with it*. He found it in the so-called nucleolus of 

 cells in general, as well as in the germinal spot of the germinal 

 vesicle, to be the point of fecundation, — to be present in the 

 head-like extremity of the spermatozoon, — to constitute as glo- 

 bules, immeasurably minute, the foundation of cytoblasts, these 

 being the real germs of cells. He showed that this hyaline 

 forms as well the membrane as the contents of the cell, — that to 

 it belong the functions of absorption, assimilation, andsecretion, — 

 that so long as the vegetative process is in full activity it never 

 ceases to be in operation, but divides and subdivides to form new 

 cells, or rather to reproduce itself. For in the reproduction of 

 cells, the maintenance, the division, and the increase of the hya- 

 line appears to be the main purpose. It may be asked, What is 

 there, then, in the organic body which is not formed through 

 hyaline ? Truly nothing. It is the essentially living substance in 

 the body, the whole organism is the product of its formative force. 

 All cell-germs are really, through repeated self-division, effected 

 by a remarkable assimilative process, descendants of the hyaline of 

 the germinal vesicle, this having been fecundated by a substance 

 from the male ; whence the resemblance between the offspring 

 and both its parents. Finally, referring to his observations on 

 the mode of origin and structure of nerve and other tissues, the 

 author adds, that were it not that he would probably be blamed 

 for excessive phantasy, he would not hesitate to declare the hya- 

 line, as the foundation of the central nucleus of ganglion glo- 

 bules and of the axis-cylinders of nerves, to be the immediate 

 organ of sensation of every kind. 



[To be continued.] 



* See the Edinb. New Phil. Journ. Oct. 1843, a paper " On Fissiparous 

 Generation;" and in the same Journal, Oct. 1847, another " On the Nu- 

 cleus of the Animal and Vegetable Cell." 



