70 MANUAL OF HISTOLOGY. 



brush, most of the lymphoid cells will be removed, and the 

 delicate network, c, will be very thoroughly exposed. 



It will be seen that, at certain parts of this mesh work, there 

 are flattened bodies, b, of small size, lying upon the larger 

 cords of the meshes. It has been held by Klein and other his- 

 tologists that the reticulum is made of branching corpuscles ; 

 but this statement must be modified. In some instances the 

 appearance of netted corpuscles is well seen in those portions 

 of the glands that are regarded as the lymph passages, where 

 the adenoid tissue forms the framework of the part. The net- 

 work seems to be comprised of delicate, silk-like cords, enclos- 

 ing vast numbers of lymphoid corpuscles, and exhibiting, at 

 the nodal points of the meshes, flattened corpuscles. These 

 delicate fibres, however, are often replaced by heavy trabecles, 

 <?, such as are seen in the figure, and after continual inflamma- 

 tions the diameter of these latter may be found greater than 

 that of the spaces. 



In these latter instances it is often difficult to find any cor- 

 puscular elements that may not be separated from the fibres ; 

 and, indeed, large areas of these fibrous networks may, by dil- 

 igent pencilling with a camel' s-hair brush, be swept clean of 

 corpuscles. But neither this rough method, nor agitation in a 

 test-tube, will always succeed in separating all the corpuscles 

 from the fibres, even after an immersion in common salt solu- 

 tion for many weeks. The sum of the whole matter is, that 

 adenoid tissue does not generally consist of a network of 

 branching corpuscles, as has been claimed, but rather of a net- 

 work of fibrous cords, on which the corpuscles are superim- 

 posed ; they may anastomose, but this point seems difficult to 

 demonstrate in most cases. 



Possibly higher powers than those now in use, or some new 

 method may solve the question. Where the fibrous networks 

 have attained some thickness, there is no doubt that we find 

 the ordinary flattened connective-tissue plates lying on the 

 bundles and surrounded by a delicate envelope. 



Neuroglia (Fig. 28). But a short time since it was not 

 known positively whether the delicate, supporting substance of 

 the nervous system, especially of the brain, was granular or 

 fibrous. Even after Virchow insisted that this substance was 

 like the other tissues, known as connective, doubt was thrown 

 upon the matter, for the defining power of most objectives then 



