HYALINE CARTILAGE. 



245 



Fig. 284. A CARTILAGK CELL 

 IN THE LIVING STATE, FROM 

 THE SALAMANDER : HIGHLY 



MAGNIFIED. ^Flemming. ) 



By exposure to water and some other liquids, as well as to the action of electric 

 shocks, the cell-body shrinks away from the inside of the capsule, and assumes a 

 jagged or otherwise irregular figure, and then may hide the nucleus (fig. 287). It 

 often contains larger or smaller fat-globules (fig. 285, g}. 



The cells of cartilage appear to contain glycogen, for 

 they are coloured reddish brown by iodine (Neumann). 



They are rarely dispersed singly in the matrix ; most 

 commonly occurring in groups of two or more. When 

 disposed in pairs (as at a, fig. 285) the cells are generally 

 triangular or pyramidal in form with rounded angles, 

 and with their bases opposite one another ; in the larger 

 groups (J) the cells have a straight outline where they 

 adjoin or approach one another, but at the circumference 

 of the group their outline is rounded. Towards the 

 surface of the cartilage the groups are generally flattened conformably with the 

 surface, appearing narrow and almost linear when seen edgeways, as in a perpen- 

 dicular section (fig. 286, a). 



Various observers, and especially Tillmanns, have shown that the matrix of 

 hyaline cartilage can be broken up after long maceration, and with the aid of 



Fig. 285. ARTICULAR CARTILLAGK FROM 

 HEAD OP METATARSAL BONE OF MAN 

 (OSMIC ACID PREPARATION). THE CELL- 

 BODIES ENTIRELY FILL THE SPACES IN 

 THE MATRIX. 340 DIAMETERS. 



(E. A. S.) 



a, group of two cells ; b, group of four J| 

 cells ; A, protoplasm of cell, with g, fatty || 

 granules ; n, nucleus. 



pressure, into fine fibrils. Ac- 

 cording to Cresswell Baber, these 

 fibres are vertical to the surface 

 in articular cartilage, and parallel 

 with the long axis in rib cartilage. 

 They are more easily seen in the 

 cartilage of birds than of mam- 

 mals. Their chemical nature is 

 not very clear, nor is it certain 

 how far the appearances corre- 

 spond with any structure naturally 

 present ; but if, as Kiihne and 

 Merochowetz assert, gelatin and 

 mucin can be obtained from the 

 matrix of cartilage, the fibres in 

 question may be chemically of the 



same nature as the white fibres of connective tissue, the mucin belonging to the 

 ground-substance in which they are embedded. 



Other histologists have described a netAvork of exceedingly fine ramified canals penetrating 1 

 the cartilage-matrix, and effecting a communication between the cell-spaces. Up to the 

 present time, however, the existence of such anastomosing channels has not been conclusively 

 proved, although often assumed in order to explain the manner in which nutritive plasma 

 penetrates the matrix of cartilage to reach the cells. Budge endeavoured to demonstrate the 

 existence of canaliculi by forcing coloured injecting fluid into the substance of cartilage, but 

 the result of the experiment was not conclusive. It has also been attempted to show them by 

 the so-called natural method of injection, that is by allowing indigo-carmine (which has an 



