422 



THE SUPRARENAL CAPSULES. 



[sect. 192. 



Fig 174. 



§ 192. Intimate Structure. — The cortical substance consists of 

 a framework of delicate interlacing fibres of connective tissue, which 

 are connected with, and proceed from, the envelope, and traverse 

 the cortical substance in the form of thin lamina^ united with each 

 other. These laminre constitute the walls of little compartments, 

 which are in a very large number and closely arranged, measuring 

 o - oi6'"to o'02'" or even o'C^'" in breadth, and running perpen- 

 dicularly from without inwards, through the whole thickness of 



the cortex. In these compartments lies 

 a granular material, which is divided 

 by delicate dissepiments of connec- 

 tive tissue, running obliquely or trans- 

 versely into larger and smaller groups. 

 These are described by Ecker as gland- 

 tubes, and as containing within a struc- 

 tureless coat a granular material inter- 

 mingled with nuclei and cells. I prefer 

 to give these elements merely the name 

 of cortical cylinders, as in most of them 

 I have seen nothing; else than roundish 



~-b 



A piece of a perpendicular section 

 through the cortex of the human 

 suprarenal capsule, a. partitions of 

 connective tissue ; 6. cortical cylinder, 

 whose cellular composition is more 

 or less distinct ; mag. 300 tim.'s. 



angular cells of croo6'" to o'oi2'" in 



diameter ; and I believe that Ecker has 

 been induced by the rare occurrence 

 of true tubes (whose significance I shall immediately discuss), to 

 regard the compact aggregation of .the above-mentioned cells 

 occurring in the interior of the cortex also in the light of special 

 tubes. The truth appears to be, that the cells are more isolated 

 in those compartments which adjoin the inner or the outer surface 

 of the cortex ; while in the compartments of the interior of the 

 cortex, the cells are firmly united in the form of oval or cylindrical 

 masses (o - 024'" to o , o48" / in length), in which the outlines of the 

 cells frequently coalesce into a single general contour. I have, 

 however, never succeeded in finding any other envelope enclosing 

 the cells than the connective tissue, which is met with in the other 

 compartments, and I almost always have succeeded, by pressure or 

 the addition of alkalies, in isolating the cells, without any special 

 tube coining into view. Hitherto, I have observed true tubes only 

 in the internal parts of the cortex, as round or oval vesicles, o , o2 / " 

 to o*03" / in size, in the interior of which no cells, such as form the 

 cortical cylinders, were to be recognised, but only an aggregation 

 of fat globules, and these tubes I am inclined to consider as 

 enlarged cells. The contents of the cells of the cortex consist 



