CONNECTIVE TISSUE. 



201 



the borders of the cartilage cavities are pierced by radiating light 

 lines. The lateral surfaces of the condyles, on the contrary, con- 

 stantly exhibit cartilage cells with offshoots of the first order, 

 which are more numerous the farther away from the border of 

 the articular surfaces. In the region where the basis-substance 

 of the cartilage begins to be striated, we find the most beautiful 

 silver images j here the coarse offshoots, interconnected by deli- 

 cate ones, are very numerous, and remain so in the fibrous car- 

 tilage proper, and also in the tissue of the periosteum and the 

 tendon, adjoining the hyaline cartilage. 



My next purpose was to stain cartilage with chloride of gold. 

 I placed the condyles of the knee-joint the stump of the femur 



FIG. 76. HYALINE CARTILAGE FROM THE CONDYLE OP THE FEMUR OF AN 

 OLD DOG, STAINED WITH CHLORIDE OF GOLD. [PUBLISHED IN 1872.] 



C, dark violet cartilage corpuscles, with indistinct nuclei and numerous delicate' dark 

 violet offshoots. , pale violet basis-substance, traversed by a partly dark violet, partly light, 

 reticulum. Magnified 800 diameters. 



again serving as a handle into a one-half per cent, solution of 

 chloride of gold, and traced its action on the cartilage for from 

 ten minutes to twelve hours, always after rejecting the most 

 superficial sections. 



The gold stain of the cartilage corpuscles appeared in fifteen 

 minutes ; in the violet cell-body the nucleus became easily 

 seen and sharply marked ; the contour of the cell-body was also 

 rendered more distinct. In many places the conical spokes 



