212 CONNECTIVE TISSUE. 



sions of a regular cartilage corpuscle. Of course, no one must for a moment 

 think of anything like the pathological conditions that have been described, 

 either as granular degenerations of the cartilage basis-substance, or as in- 

 crustations of the corpuscles. Not only were the appearances entirely differ- 

 ent and the cartilage healthy, as otherwise ascertainable, as well as from the 

 known condition of the man and of the cause of his death, but the true 

 nature of the lumps was made perfectly clear by examination with higher 

 powers. (See Fig. 82.) 



When magnified to the extent of 600 diameters, the same relative appear- 

 ance was preserved. The lumps in the basis-substance still varied in size, 

 from the limit of the visible to the magnitude of ordinary cartilage corpuscles ; 

 but, in all the larger lumps, differentiations were visible which approached 

 them in structure, as well as in size, to cartilage corpuscles. In some, one 

 or more vacuoles, in others, a small or large nucleus, or even two nuclei, 

 could be made out; and a few (i. e., occasionally one in some fields) showed 

 irregular twin, or even triplet, formation. 



The highest power threw a wonderful light upon these lumps. They were 

 seen to be masses of living matter. The larger showed a net-work in their 

 interior, some without and some with a nucleus, and the latter, when present, 

 was sometimes homogeneous and sometimes reticulated. All the lumps, 

 except the smaller, were surrounded by a distinct light seam, through which 

 radiating conical offshoots passed to the net-work in the basis-substance; 

 and all of them, even the smallest, sent delicate offshoots connecting them 

 with that net-work, or were themselves part and parcel (i. e., thickened points 

 of intersection of the threads) of that net-work. (See Fig. 83.) 



After having studied such a specimen, it was easy to interpret correctly 

 the intrareticular granules seen in the alcohol specimen represented in 

 Fig. 81. 



Development of Cartilage* Hyaline cartilage is developed, in 

 the same way as fibrous tissue and bone, from the indifferent 

 medullary elements which, in human embryos, between the fourth 

 and fifth month, and in newly born dogs, cats, and rabbits, are 

 stored up in a still considerable amount in the vascularized 

 medullary spaces of the cartilage. 



Upon the authority of Schwann, the erroneous view has been 

 generally held that blood-vessels are found in hyaline cartilage 

 only a short time before commencing ossification. In early 

 periods of development of cartilage, medullary spaces are pres- 

 ent containing blood-vessels, viz. : arteries, veins, and capil- 

 laries, which, as Bubnofff has demonstrated, are preserved to 

 quite an advanced age. 



In such spaces we find, besides a varying number of blood- 



* " Untersuchungen iiber das Protoplasma. IV. Die Entwickelung der 

 Beinhaut, des Knochens und des Knorpels." Sitzungsber. der Akad. d. 

 Wissensch. in Wien, 1873. 



t Sitzungsber. der Wiener Akademie d. Wissensch., 1868. 



