124 CELL- WALL CELL- CONTENTS IN CARTILAGE. 



examines tliese specimens will, I tliink, feel satisfied 

 that tlie process does not difier essentially from the 

 change which occurs in the amoeba and the mucus 

 corpuscle when these masses of bioplasm undergo 

 division ; while I am quite sure no one would main- 

 tain that the appearance results from the ingrowing 

 of the matrix or formed material of the cartilage. 



196. Question of cell-wall and cell-contents. — It is 

 certain that the matrix of cartilage is never produced 

 without the masses of bioplasm, nor can it increase, 

 except by their agency. In disease change is ob- 

 served in the rate of growth of the bioplasts. After 

 the matrix has been produced many of the bioplasts 

 die and disappear, but in growing cartilage they are 

 invariably present. In recent growing cartilage 

 there is no appearance of a cell- wall distinct from the 

 matrix, as some maintain, nor is there an interval 

 between the living matter and the matrix, unless 

 post-mortem changes have occurred. The first, in 

 fact, passes uninterruptedly into the last. The ragged 

 outline of many of the masses of bioplasm observed 

 in the case of the cartilage from the frog shows that 

 the terms " cell " " nucleus," " cell contents," or " gra- 

 nular corpuscle," are totally inapplicable. It is clear 

 that around such masses there can be no cell- wall. 

 The bioplasm gradually becomes the matrix, and all 

 matrix was once in the state of bioplasm. Without 

 bioplasm there can be no cell-wall or intercellular 

 substance. In this, as in other cases, pabulum is con- 

 verted into bioplasm by pre-existing bioplasm, and 

 this last is at length converted into formed material, 

 be it fluid or solid, cell- wall, secondary deposit, or 

 intei'cellular substance. 



We shall find, when we come to consider the struc- 

 ture of bone, that the first deposition of calcareous 

 particles cakes place in the formed material at a 

 point midway between the masses of bioplasm — that 

 is, in the oldest portion of the formed material. The 



