CONNECTIVE TISSUE. 205 



and chloride of gold been the only foundation on which they 

 were based. But I said, in 1872, that calcined portions of the 

 hyaline cartilage, the calcification being a product either of a 

 normal process preceding ossification, or of a process of inflam- 

 mation artificially induced, exhibited the reticulum and the 

 offshoots of the cartilage corpuscles in the larger projections 

 of the cavities, without the application of any re-agent. The 

 increased refracting power of the calcified basis-substance is 

 sufficient by itself to bring to view everything that can be seen 

 in the silver and gold specimens, and everything which can be 

 deduced from a comparison of both. The images obtained in 

 the earliest stages of inflammation of any variety of connective 

 tissue are very valuable means of convincing ourselves of the 



FIG. 78. HYALINE CARTILAGE FROM THE CONDYLE OF THE FEMUR OF A 

 HUMAN FCETUS, Six MONTHS OLD. STAINED WITH NITRATE OF SILVER. 



S 1 , single light space; S*, twins, directly connected by light lines; J?, dark brown basis- 

 substance pervaded by a light reticulum. Magnified 1000 diameters. 



presence of a large amount of living matter within the basis- 

 substance. There is, indeed, no way to understand the inflam- 

 matory process unless explained in this manner. 



A. Spina (see page 141), by the alcohol treatment of the car- 

 tilage, discovered an excellent method for demonstrating the 

 connections of the cartilage corpuscles. An eye with very little 

 experience can observe to-day what, in 1872, 1 first maintained, 

 after a long and tedious research and laborious experiments. 



