316 LECTURE XIII. 



the other hand, Jacubowitsch has utterly denied the oc- 

 currence of the cellular elements of connective tissue in 

 any part of the brain or spinal cord, and has asserted 

 that the interstitial tissue, which by him too, indeed, is 

 regarded as connective tissue, is an altogether amorphous, 

 finely granular or reticulated matter, which nowhere 

 contains a single corpuscular element. Between these 

 extremes, I think, we are perfectly justified by experi- 

 ence in steering a middle course. There can, according 

 to my firm conviction, be no doubt but that the larger 

 cells which pervade the posterior horns of the spinal mar- 

 row are nerve-cells ; but, on the other hand, it must be 

 maintained with equal positiveness, that, where neuro- 

 glia is met with, it also contains a certain number of cel- 

 lular elements. Immediately beneath the surface of the 

 cerebral ventricles we commonly meet with spindle- 

 shaped cells lying parallel to it, just like those which are 

 found in other kinds of connective tissue ; these become 

 larger under certain circumstances, and, in oblique sec- 

 tions, often display themselves in the form of stellate 

 cells (Fig. 94). 



A substance altogether similar in structure to that, 

 with which we have already become fa- 

 miliar in connective tissue especially 

 6 c as far as its cells are concerned is also 

 ^$ d @ found between the nerve-fibres of the 

 ^p cerebrum ; only the cells are so soft and 

 fragile, that generally nothing but nu- 

 clei can be perceived, scattered at certain intervals 

 throughout the mass. On making a careful search, how- 

 ever, even in fresh (not artificially hardened) specimens, 

 soft cellular bodies of a roundish or lenticular form can 



Fig. 95. Elements of the neuro-glia from the white substance of the cerebral 

 hemispheres of a human subject, a. Free nuclei with nucleoli, 6, nuclei with the 

 granular remnants of the cellular parenchyma broken up in making the preparation, 

 c, perfect cells. 300 diameters. 



