240 MARTIN BARRY ON FIBRE. 



in its cell, resembled a ball of twine, being composed at its outer part of 

 a coiled filament, which it was giving off to weave the cell- wall ; this 

 cell-wall being no other than the last-formed portion of what is termed 

 the intercellular substance the essential part of cartilage. These 

 nuclei in cartilage, as well as those in other tissues, there is ground for 

 believing to be descended, by fissiparous generation, from the nuclei of 

 blood- corpuscles . 



The author then describes the mode of origin of the flat filament or 

 fibre, its reproduction, in various animal and vegetable tissues, which 

 he enumerates. He conceives that each filament is a compound body, 

 which enlarges, and, from analogy, may contain the elements of future 

 structures, formed by division and subdivision, to which no limits 

 can be assigned. 



[Dr. Barry requests us to add the following, in connection with his 

 memoir on Fibre, an abstract of which is given above. 



The " white substance of the nervous fibre," surrounding Remak's 

 " band-like axis," consists of filaments having the remarkable structure 

 above described, and often curiously interlaced with one another, as 

 though each of them had a spiral direction. In examining the substance 

 of the optic, the olfactory, and auditory nerves, as well as that of the 

 brain and spinal cord, Dr. Barry employed for the most part such as 

 had been preserved in spirit ; and, besides using extremely minute por- 

 tions, he very often avoided adding any covering whatever the weight 

 of thin mica itself being sufficient to rupture or to flatten this delicate 

 substance, and thus entirely prevent its structure from being seen. In 

 the parts last mentioned, he finds red discs, which pass first into rings, 

 and then into spirals. In fasciculi from the spiral cord, and surrounded 

 by spiral filaments, he met with a "band-like axis," which perhaps 

 corresponds to that of Remak in the nerves ; but if so, Dr. Barry's ob- 

 servations go farther even than Remak's. The " axis" described by 

 this observer was found by him to be susceptible of division into fila- 

 ments. So also is the one described by Dr. Barry. But the latter adds, 

 that each filament is a compound object, which enlarges, and, from 

 analogy, may contain the elements of future structures, formed by divi- 

 sion and subdivision, to which no limits can be assigned. The sper- 

 matoza, mentioned in the abstract, were from the epididymis of a person 

 who had died suddenly. The depression noticed in their discoid extre- 

 mity corresponding 'apparently to the " sugient orifice" of some au- 

 thors is probably analogous to the source of new substance in other 

 discs. In these examinations, Dr. Barry has generally added to the 

 objects dilute spirit (sp. gr. about 0'940), containing about a-J^th of 



