80 ANATOMY OF THE LYMPHATIC SYSTEM. 



long as these villi are small, one recognises a pale granular matrix, 

 containing two or more nuclei, covered by a layer of endothelial 

 plates, somewhat thicker than common endothelial cells. In a 

 still later stage the matrix contains, besides the corpuscles just 

 mentioned, a substance which is first hyaline, but afterwards be- 

 comes finely striated connective tissue. In some omenta many villi 

 are to be found, which consist of a fully-developed connective tissue 

 matrix, with the corresponding lymph-canalicular system and their 

 branched cells. The question arises where this connective tissue 

 matrix originates. Kundrat asserts, that the connective tissue 

 matrix of those projections and villi of the omentum in chronic in- 

 flammation take their origin from endothelial elements, which, having 

 become elongated, become transformed into bundles of connective 

 tissue. I cannot confirm this statement, for I must on the contrary 

 mention that the bundles of connective tissue that make their 

 appearance in these villi are always first hyaline thin bands, which 

 gradu"lly increase in thickness, whereas the cells of the matrix never 

 show any transition into these bundles. I possess preparations of the 

 mesogastrium and the septum cysternse lymphaticse of a female frog, 

 which suffered from chronic peritonitis, where the development of 

 villi with a connective tissue matrix can be followed through all its 

 intermediate stages ; and here it is more likely that the connective 

 tissue bands are mere excretions, either of pseudo-stomata cells or, 

 as it is oftener the case, of the superficial endothelial cells. 



I have come across innumerable preparations of mesenteries of 

 guinea-pigs suffering from chronic peritonitis, where the connective 

 tissue bands of the matrix of the above-mentioned villi and projec- 

 tions must be taken as excretions of the cells ; in not one single instance 

 was there to be seen a transformation of cellular substance into these 

 bands. They always appear as thin hyaline bands of equal diameter, 

 which gradually increase in thickness, and in a later stage show a 

 fibrillar structure. I am, therefore, in agreement with Rollett, who 

 states that in the serous membranes connective-tissue bundles 

 develope from an inter-cellular substance. We come now to deal 

 with a point, the significance of which has been until the pre- 

 sent completely overlooked we mean the significance of vacuolation 



