186 CONNECTIVE TISSUE. 



tissues. To distinguish it from other kinds of cartilage, in which either a 

 fibrous or a reticular aspect has been recognized, it is called hyaline, i. e., 

 resembling glass. The description of its structure by Meckauer, in 1836,* is 

 essentially as that by Klein in 1880,t viz. : that it consists of a firm homoge- 

 neous basis-substance, in which are imbedded numerous small cartilage 

 corpuscles. Meckauer wrote before the cell-doctrine, which has exercised 

 so powerful an influence upon the medical mind, had been thought of. In- 

 deed, that doctrine itself, as its founder, Schwann, J: has recorded, was based 

 to a large extent upon investigations of the constitution of cartilage. After 

 J. Miiller had described cartilage corpuscles that were hollow, and Gurlt had 

 spoken of some as vesicles ; when Schwann had succeeded, as he thought, " in 

 actually observing the proper wall of the cartilage corpuscles, first in the 

 branchial cartilages of the frog's larvae, and subsequently also in the fish," he 

 was led by these and other researches to conjecture "that the cellular forma- 

 tion might be a widely extended, perhaps a universal, principle for the forma- 

 tion of organic substances." 



Schwann considered that the cartilage corpuscles, or cartilage cells, as they 

 were thenceforth called, are imbedded in a matrix which is capable of produc- 

 ing the cells, and which he therefore called cytoblastema. Groodsir, Naegeli, 

 and finally Virchow advanced the histology of cartilage in so far as they 

 claimed that the cartilage cells cannot possibly arise from the matrix or inter- 

 cellular substance. Even Virchow adhered, however, to the idea of Schwann, 

 that the cartilage cell is a vesicle filled with a more or less transparent fluid, 

 in which is suspended the nucleus ; and, although he was aware of the life of 

 the cell in general, nothing was suggested by him as to the life of cartilage. 

 It is true, Bonders and H. Meyer had observed that the cells of hyaline carti- 

 lage were capable of proliferation ; nevertheless the idea became prevalent, 

 more perhaps from implication because, on account of the absence of blood- 

 vessels, it was believed not liable to inflammation than from any direct state- 

 ment to that effect, that cartilage was devoid of life. The vitality of cartilage 

 corpuscles was made clearly probable by the observation of the effect of elec- 

 trical shocks upon them, by Heidenhain, || and by Bollett,1F and the investi- 

 gations of Eeitz, 1 Boehm, 2 Hutob, 3 and Bubnoff, 4 investigations which 

 except Boehm's, were made under Strieker ; it was proved positively by Heitz- 

 mann in 1873. 6 



With the question whether or not the so-called cartilage cell is alive, 



* " De Penitiori Cartilaginum Structura Symbolse." Diss. anat.-phys., auctore M. 

 Meckauer, M. D. Breslau : Schultz & Co., 1836, tab. 4, p. 16. 



t " Atlas of Histology." London : Smith, Elder <fe Co., 1880, p. 48. 



$ " Mikroskopische Untersuchungen iiber die Uebereinstimmung in tier Structur unddem 

 Wachsthume der Thiere und Pnanzen," von Dr. Th. Schwanu. Berlin : G. E. Beimer, 1839, 

 p. 270. " Microscopical Researches into the Accordance in the Structure and Growth of 

 Animals and Plants." Translated by Henry Smith. London : Sydenhani Society, 1846. In- 

 troduction. 



Mueller's " Archiv fur Anatomic," 1846. 



|| " Studien aus dem Physiologischen Institut zu Breslau," ii. Heft, 1863. 



^T Strieker's "Handbuch der Lehre von den Gevveben," Article, " Knorpelgewebe," 



1868. 



" Sitzungsber. der K. Akademie der Wissensch. in Wien," Bd. 55, 1867. 

 2 " Beitrage zur Normalen und Pathologischen Anatomie der Gelenke." Inaug. Dis- 

 sertation, Wiirzburg, 1868. 



" Untersuchungen iiber Knorpelentziindung." Wiener Med. Jahrbiicher, 1871, p. 399. 

 4 "Beitrage zur Kenntniss der Structur des Knorpels." Sitzungsber. der K. Akad. 

 d. Wiss. in Wien, Bd. 57, 1868. 



"Das Verhaltniss zwischen Protoplasma und Grundsubstanz im Thierkorper." Sitz- 

 ungsber. der K. Akad. d. Wien ; Wien, Bd. 67, 1873, and Wiener Med. Jahrbiicher, 1873. 



