116 TISSUES IN GENERAL. 



quence of inflammation, especially served for bringing to view a 

 delicate reticulum in the basis-substance, as such a deposition 

 took place in the chondrogenous substance, while the protoplas- 

 mic bodies and their offshoots remained unchanged. This reticu- 

 lum corresponded with the light (negative) figures obtained by 

 treatment with nitrate of silver and with the violet (positive) 

 figures after gold-tinction. 



I wish to add a few more observations concerning the life and 

 the structure of cartilage-corpuscles. 



If we examine a thin section from the condyle of femur of a 

 middle-sized rabbit, in a one-half per cent, solution of chloride of 

 sodium, or a little serum of blood, with high amplifications, we will 

 see in many cartilage-corpuscles a structure identical with that I 

 have described in colorless blood-corpuscles of man. The nucleus, 

 if visible, appears either homogeneous or constructed of a dense 

 reticulum of a shining substance, the living matter, and in- 

 closed by a continuous layer of the same substance. The nucleus 

 sends delicate conical filaments into the reticulum of the cor- 

 puscle, and the points of intersection of this reticulum are thick- 

 enings, granules, or lumps of living matter. In the narrow 

 light rim between the protoplasm and the basis-substance we 

 also see delicate spokes emanating from the cartilage-corpuscles, 

 which are lost to sight in the finely granular but in some places 

 distinctly reticular basis-substance. 



If we heat a fresh specimen to 30-35 degrees C. (86-91 degrees 

 F.), we can observe in cartilage-corpuscles having a reticular 

 structure a continuous though very slow change in the configu- 

 ration of the living matter. Points of intersection flow together 

 into homogeneous lumps ; the latter again are differentiated into 

 a reticulum, and such change continues until rest of the living 

 matter occurs these changes in the reticulum not noticeably 

 altering, however, the general shape of the corpuscle. 



A direct proof is thus obtained that cartilage-corpuscles are 

 alive, which was made probable by R. Heidenhain and A. Rollett 

 by observations of cartilage- corpuscles of the frog and newt on 

 the application of induced electricity. 



A one-half per cent, solution of chloride of gold is a suitable 

 re- agent for plainly bringing to view the structure of cartilage- 

 corpuscles,* and for this purpose a slight tinction is sufficient. 

 (See Fig. 32.) 



* Method of J. Cohnheim. " Ueber die Endigung der sensiblen Nerven 

 in der Hornhaut." Virchow's Archiv, 38. Bd. 1867. 



