REPRODUCTION OF PHYSIOLOGICAL TISSUES. 97 



to conclude from the mere correspondence of the patho- 

 logical tissue with a physiological one, that the case would 

 continue to follow a benignant course. 



It has been, as I must remark with particular empha- 

 sis, one of the greatest, and at the same time best-founded, 

 reproaches which have been levelled against the most 

 recent micrographical doctrines, that, regarding the sub- 

 ject from the certainly excusable point of view, namely, 

 the correspondence between many normal and abnormal 

 structures, they have declared every pathological new 

 formation to be innocuous which exhibits a reproduction 

 of pre-existing and familiar tissues of the body. If what 

 I have communicated to you as my view be correct, 

 namely, that throughout the whole range of pathological 

 growths no structure of an absolutely new form is to be 

 found, but that we everywhere meet with structures 

 which may in one way or another be regarded as the 

 reproduction of physiological tissues, then this point of 

 view falls to the ground. In support of my view, I cant 

 at least adduce the fact that I have, in all disputes con- 

 cerning the innocent or malignant nature of definite 

 forms of tumours, up to the present time always proved 

 to be in the right. 



Before we quit the consideration of General Histology, 

 I would invite your attention for a few moments to a 

 few points of primary importance which obtrude them- 

 selves upon us on nearly every occasion. Whilst, namely, 

 the animal tissues were being studied in their affinities- 

 to one another, questions relating to these affinities were- 

 at different times stumbled upon, which gave rise to 

 generalizations that were more of a physiological cha- 

 racter. 



When Reichert undertook to collect the connective 

 tissues into one larger group, he set out with this position 

 chiefly, that the demonstration of the continuity of tis- 



