TISSUES IN GENERAL. 137 



the intercellular substance was the cytoblastema destined for the development 

 of new cells. This I do not consider to be correct, but, on the contrary, I 

 have, by means of a series of pathological observations, arrived at the conclu 

 sion that the intercellular substance is dependent in a certain definite manner 

 upon the cells, and that it is necessary to draw boundaries in it also, so that 

 certain districts belong to one cell, and certain others to another. You will 

 see how sharply these boundaries are defined by pathological processes, and 

 how direct evidence is afforded that any given district of intercellular sub- 

 stance is ruled over by the cell which lies in the middle of it, and exercises 

 influence upon the neighboring parts. 



" It must now be evident to you, I think, what I understand by the terri- 

 tories of cells. But there are simple tissues which are composed entirely 

 of cells, cell lying close to cell. In these there can be no difficulty with 

 regard to the boundaries of the individual cells, yet it is necessary that I 

 should call your attention to the fact that, in this case, too, every individual 

 cell may run its own peculiar course, may undergo its own peculiar changes, 

 without the fate of the cell lying next to it being necessarily linked with its 

 own. In other tissues, on the contrary, in which we find intermediate sub- 

 stance, every cell, in addition to its own contents, has the superintendence of a 

 certain quantity of matter external to it, and this shares in its changes nay, 

 is frequently affected even earlier than the interior of the cell, which is ren- 

 dered more secure by its situation than the external intercellular matter. 



" Finally, there is a third series of tissues, in which the elements are more 

 intimately connected with one another. A stellate cell, for example, may 

 anastomose with a similar one, and in this way a reticular arrangement may 

 be produced similar to that which we see in capillary vessels and other analo- 

 gous structures. In this case it might be supposed that the whole series was 

 ruled by something which lay, who knows how far off ; but upon more accu- 

 rate investigation, it turns out that even in this chain-work of cells a certain 

 independence of the individual members prevails, and that this independence 

 evinces itself by single cells undergoing, in consequence of certain external 

 or internal influences, certain changes confined to their own limits, and not 

 necessarily participated in by the cells immediately adjoining." * 



" Now, according to Heitzmann, what Virchow asserts of ' a 

 third series of tissues ' is really true of all tissues. Not only are 

 there contained no cells as isolated individuals in any tissue of 

 the body, but no tissue in the body is isolated from the others. 

 He prefers not to use the term ' cells ' ; he speaks of ' living 

 matter/ and this he asserts is continuous throughout the whole 

 body. If we desire to retain the use of the word gell to desig- 

 nate the living-tissue elements, we must regard each cell to 

 contain a net- work of living matter within it, and every cell 

 connected by threads of living matter with every other cell in its 

 neighborhood. . . . 



" Cellular Pathology, as based upon Physiological and Pathological Histology." By 

 Rudolf Virchow. Translated from the second edition by Frank Chance, B. A., M. B., Cantab., 

 etc. New York : Robert M. DeWitt, Pp. 29, 40, et seq. 



