CONNECTIVE TISSUE. 



209 



of gold chloride, whereupon they assumed a dark purple color, and showed 

 all the features described, somewhat more distinctly than simple carmine 

 preparations. I deem their detailed description unnecessary. 



When I became acquainted with Spina's researches (see page 141), I 

 deemed it of importance to repeat the examination according to his method. 

 I therefore placed a larynx, immediately after removal from the body of a 

 girl, aged twenty-four years, into strong alcohol, and after four days made 

 thin sections from the thyroid cartilage in a horizontal direction, transferred 

 them in alcohol to the slide, and examined them with both low and high pow- 

 ers, adding, from time to time, a drop of strong alcohol to prevent the speci- 

 men from drying. The appearance presented by such a specimen is truly 

 surprising. As a matter of course, the cartilage corpuscles are shriveled up, 

 so that more or less space is left between their jagged periphery and the bor- 



FIG. 81. THYROID CARTILAGE OF ADULT, KEPT IN STRONG 

 ALCOHOL. HORIZONTAL SECTION. 



0, shriveled cartilage corpuscle; O, longitudinal offshoots; JB, reticuluin in basis-sub- 

 stance ; G, granules of living matter. Magnified 1200 diameters. 



der of the basis-substance. With an amplification of 500 diameters, the 

 basis-substance is seen pierced by light filaments, which, in many instances, 

 can be traced through the intervening space into the body of the cartilage 

 corpuscle. Most of these filaments radiate around the corpuscle, and, imme- 

 diately after penetrating the basis-substance, diverge and form a reticulum 

 throughout its extent. Cartilage corpuscles located near each other are 

 directly connected by non-ramifying, and occasionally by ramifying, offshoots, 

 or by bundles of such offshoots of a more or less parallel course. The reticu- 

 lum in the basis-substance is either radiating or irregularly arranged around 



14 



