112 BIOPLASTS OF WHITE FIBROUS TISSUE. 



tween the two specimens in the proportion of bioplasm 

 which corresponds to a given amount of formed 

 material is very striking. (See the new edition of 

 " Physiological Anatomy and Physiology of Man," 

 Part II.) The formed material increases as the 

 tendon is developed, and at the same time it under- 

 goes condensation. The fibrous material is continuous 

 with, and has been formed from, the bioplasm. Like 

 other kinds of formed material, it possesses no power 

 of absorbing nutritive pabulum, nor can it convert 

 this into tissue like itself. All additions to its sub- 

 stance take place at those points only at which bio- 

 plasm exists. 



163. Bioplasts of white fibrous tissue. — The little 

 masses of bioplasm situated at regular distances 

 throughout the tissue, and having the appearance of 

 nuclei, are the only parts engaged in the process of 

 growth, and upon the outer part of each is a layer of 

 soft formed matter not yet converted into the firm 

 unyielding fibrous tissue. From each there extends, for 

 some distance amongst the fully formed tissue, threads 

 of imperfectly developed formed material which re- 

 sists the action of acetic acid and refracts highly — 

 circumstances which have led to the opinion that 

 from each nucleus, fibres of yellow elastic tissue were 

 prolonged, and, as a consequence, it was supposed 

 that the "nuclei" and their supposed "fibres," or 

 nuclear fibres which were embedded in the white 

 fibrous tissue, had nothing to do with its formation. 

 The former were supposed to represent cells, and the 

 latter an iuferceUular substance. Subsequently, Vii'- 

 chow included them in his catalogue of juice-con- 

 veying channels. Careful examination of properly 

 prepared specimens of the same kind of fibrous 

 tissue at difierent ages will, however, convince any 

 careful observer that the theories now taught are 

 untenable, and that the facts may be satisfactorily ex- 

 plained upon the more simple view of the structure 



