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XXXVI. REMARKS ON THE STRUCTURE OF FIBRE. 



By the Editors. 



THE abstract of Dr. Barry's views on the spiral structure of animal and 

 vegetable tissues, which was given in our last number, would hardly, 

 perhaps, convey a sufficient notion of the extent to which they reach ; 

 to understand which, it will be as well to peruse the catalogue of the 

 parts in which Dr. Barry has observed the same kind of filaments, as 

 given by him in the Philosophical Transactions, viz. : 



" The cortical and medullary substance of both the cerebrum and 

 cerebellum, the spinal chord, the optic nerve and retina, the olfactory 

 and auditory nerves, nerves connected with the spinal chord, voluntary 

 and involuntary muscle (the latter including muscle in all parts of the 

 alimentary canal, and the Fallopian tube and uterus, as well as blood- 

 vessels, the iris, and the heart), tendon, elastic tissue, cellular aad fatty 

 tissue, serous membranes (peritoneum, pericardium, and arachnoid mem- 

 brane), various parts of the so-called mucous membrane, the lining 

 membrane of the large blood-vessels, and the valve of a large vein, the 

 skin, the dura mater, and the sheath of the spinal chord, ligament, the 

 gums and palate, the stroma of the ovary, the testis and the walls of 

 the vas deferens, the kidney and ureter, the glans as well as the corpus 

 spongiosum and corpus cavernosum penis, the coats of the gall-bladder 

 and of the cystic duct, the pancreas, and the liver. He found them 

 along with the marrow from a bone, between the rings of the trachea, 

 as well as in the substance of the lungs, and the gills of the common 

 Mussel, in the parenchyma of the spleen, the lacrymal gland, the scle- 

 rotic coat of the eye, the conjunctiva, the cornea, the membrane of 

 the vitreous humor, the capsule of the crystalline lens, the lens itself, 

 the cartilage of the ear and cartilage of bone, bone itself, the perios- 

 teum, the claw of the bird, the shell membrane of the egg, substance 

 connecting the ova of the crab, silk, hair, the incipient feather, the 

 feather-like objects from the wing of the butterfly and gnat, and the 

 spider's web." 



These are the principal of the animal structures in which Dr. Barry 

 has found filaments such as he describes. Of plants he subjected to 

 microscopic examination, the root, stem, leaf-stalk, and leaf, besides the 

 several parts of the flower : and in no instance where a fibrous tissue 

 existed, did he fail to find filaments of the same kind, as well in Phane- 

 rogamous as in Cryptogamous plants. The flat filament seen by him 

 in all these structures of both animals and plants, is that usually deno- 



VOL. ir. s 



