DIFFERENT KINDS OF CELLS. 21 



distributed in the midst of the tissues, they continue to 

 serve for the production (the periosteal cell continually 

 forming bone) or for the reparation of breaches which may 

 have accidentally made a rent in or destroyed the tissues ; 

 hence also their name plasmatic cells. Some of these, incertce 

 sedis^ help sometimes by means of the circulation to nourish 

 the tissues where they are distributed, and then are seen in 

 star-shaped form with anastomoses of their prolongations ; 

 the cornea offers a beautiful illustration of this distribution 

 (Fig. 5). 



At other times the plasmatic cells undergo a sort of decay, 

 by accumulating fat in their interior, and thus afford adipose 

 tissue; in this condition they are no longer susceptible of 

 undergoing transformations; they are so to speak dead. 

 But most, though changing form and becoming almost mum- 

 mified (stellate plasmatic cells), preserve, in their latent con- 



Fig. 5.* 



dition, all their vital characteristics, ready to wake up if the 

 excitation is sufficiently strong ; in this way they can furnish 

 new forms, as, for instance, cancer, different tumors, and, in 

 general, purulent abscess globules. In this way the embry- 

 onic cells become pathological. 



Supposing now that we are familiar with the different 

 kinds of globules, excepting the embryonic globule, we can 

 represent them in a diagram, grouping together the functions 

 of the three classes of globules. 



We can represent the organism as a homogeneous mass, 

 more liquid than solid, on the surface of which is a layer of 



* Section of cornea cut parallel to the surface. Stellate corpuscles, with their 

 nastoinotic prolongations (His}. 



