FIBRES; CONNECTING TISSUE. 23 



and gelatiniform tissues, composed of an amorphous 

 substance, throughout which a variable number of 

 branching or plasmatic cells are distributed, consist, 

 probably, of connecting tissue in an embryonic or 

 imperfectly developed state. 



The fibres of connecting tissue develop themselves Development, 

 from cells of the simplest form, which commence the 

 process by assuming an elongated shape, then join 

 each other end to end, and gradually break up into 

 fibres within, so (see fig. III. pi. IV.) that each row of 

 cells thus attached by their extremities, is developed 

 into a bundle of connective fibres. Whilst the majority 

 of the original cells are thus transforming themselves 

 into connective fibres, others assume a star-shape, send- 

 ing out branching processes, which, joining themselves 

 to similar prolongations from neighboring cells,produce, 

 after the disappearance of their nuclei, elastic fibres. 

 The cells heretofore called u plasmatic" are nothing 

 more than the star-shaped corpuscles just described, 

 before taking on their final transformation into elastic 

 fibres. This is the mode of development of the fibres 

 of connecting tissue most generally admitted, but we 

 have recently recognised two other moc[es in which 

 connective fibres are formed, which have never been 

 described, and which perhaps are worthy of notice. 

 A fibrous tumor of the dura-rnater, of an encephaloid 

 aspect, presents, in its softer portions a series of oval 

 or fusiform cells, arranged, end to end, in longitudinal 

 rows (PL IV. fig. IV. 2). In the harder parts of the 

 same tumor, where to the naked eye it has a distinctly 

 fibrous appearance, its cells are longer and more 

 thread-like, their bodies have become more atte- 



