THE CELL DOCTRINE. 85 



or rather germinal matter, which has not been con- 

 verted. While the twisted and curling cord-like 

 fibres of the so-called yellow elastic tissue, also con- 

 sidered by Virchow as a part of his canalicular sys- 

 tem, are thought by Beale to be composed in part of 

 true yellow elastic tissue, such as is found in the 

 ligamentum nuchae, and likewise formed from nu- 

 clei (Plate, Figure 14), but in part also of the remains 

 of nerves, and vessels, which were active at an earlier 

 period of life.* 



So, also, with hyaline cartilage. According to Beale, 

 the intercellular substance results from the conver- 

 sion of the so-called cartilage corpuscles or cells into 

 formed material, and here also the germinal matter 

 is directly continuous with the matrix, no proper cell 

 wall intervening. 



Cartilage is not to be considered as a distinct class 

 of tissue from epithelium, nor can the latter, in all 

 cases be distinguished from cartilage by the exist- 

 ence of separate cells, since in many forms of epi- 

 thelium, at an early period of existence, the formed 

 material corresponding to the masses of germinal 

 matter is continuous throughout, and presents no 

 indication of division into cells.f A " cell," or ele- 

 mentary part, then, of fully formed tendon or carti- 

 lage, would consist of a portion of germinal matter, 

 with a proportion of formed material about it, ex- 

 tending to a line midway between that mass of ger- 



* Beale, On the Structure and Growth of the Tissues, and on 

 Life. London : 1865, pp. 95, 96, and 101. 



f Beale, Protoplasm ; or, Life, Force and Matter. London : 

 1870, p. 51. 



8 



