360 SPECIAL HISTOLOGY. 



tion and ultimate anastomoses. In this case, also, the 

 stellate and readily isolated cartilage-cells from an enchondroma 

 described by Virchow (Wiirz. 'Verh./ Bd. 1), around the 

 internal portions of which the contours of rounded cells were 

 visible would be intelligible, and even the possibility of the 

 isolation of stellate organisms from normal bone (vid. sup.) be 

 explicable. My exposition of the formation of the lacunas in 

 rachitic bone, is confirmed by Rokitansky and Virchow (Wiirz. 

 'Verb../ II) ; whilst Robin declares that it is incorrect, giving 

 a description of their formation which is, to me, unintelligible. 

 I recommend to his notice rachitic bone, the cementum of the 

 horse's tooth, and the symphyses (§ 95), with which he is 

 manifestly unacquainted, and hope that he may then be 

 induced no longer to regard Schwann's and my views as 

 antiquated. 1 ] 



1 [As we have already said, we must deny the existence of endogenous cell- 

 development in ossifying, or any other cartilage. In fact, the process of multiplication 

 of the corpuscles (nuclei (?) of Kolliker, granular cartilage-cells of Tomes and 

 De Morgan) is so clear, that we are at a loss to comprehend how it can be mistaken. 

 What is meant in the text by " contents," as distinct from the corpuscles, we do not 

 know. Messrs. Tomes and De Morgan describe the real changes which precede 

 ossification, very exactly in a few words, thus : " Cartilage previous to its conversion 

 into bone undergoes a rapid growth, which takes place principally in the direction of 

 the long axis of the future bone. Each granular cell becomes divided into two, by 

 segmentation transverse to the line of ossific advance. These are again divided, and 

 the process repeated from time to time, until in the place of a single granular cell 

 we have a long line of cells extending from the unchanged cartilage to the point 

 where ossification has taken place" (1. c, p. 1G). " If attention be directed to the 

 end of the line furthest from the bone, the cells will be found small in size, granular, 

 and with a perceptible nucleus, but without an outer wall, distinguishable from the 

 hyaline substance, which is abundant between the contiguous lines, but small in 

 quantity between the cells composing the lines. But if the other end of the line be 

 examined, very different conditions will be observed. The granular cells will be seen 

 to have become rounded in form, to have increased to three times their original bulk, 

 and to possess well-marked, circular nuclei " p. 17. (See fig. 129 A, 8.) 



So far, our own observations are in perfect accordance with those of Tomes 

 and De Morgan. They go on, however, to observe, "in addition to which, 

 each granular cell will have acquired a thick, pellucid, outer wall ;" and with this last 

 statement we can by no means agree. Neither in Man, the Calf, the Rabbit, the 

 Skate, nor in enchondroma, have we been able to see anything of the regular develop- 

 ment of such an envelope: in fact, in the great majority of instances, we have con- 

 vinced ourselves of the absence of anything of the kind — there being nothing but a 

 clear space between the corpuscle and the ossified wall of the cavity in which it lies. 

 Bodies corresponding with the lacunal cells — cartilage-corpuscles that is, — invested 



