FORMATION OF FIBRES. 93 



be abandoned, and that the formation of all tissues is 

 characterised by changes of the same kind. Whether 

 soft, smooth, structureless material, or firm, resisting 

 fibrous texture is to be formed, the change is effected 

 by a mass of bioplasm which could not be distin- 

 guished from the bioplasm which produces any other 

 kind of formed material. Not only so, but a given 

 mass of bioplasm may, under certain circumstances, 

 form upon its surface a capsule, and so ultimately 

 produce a cell-form, while, under other circumstances, 

 this same mass may form a distinctly fibrous struc- 

 ture, or a firm matrix, having no definite structure 

 whatever. Moreover the bioplasts which are to form 

 the cuticle of the embryo and those which are to pro- 

 duce the fibrous texture of the skin, lie so very close 

 together that no one could say which would take part 

 in the production of one texture and which of the other. 

 They are not separated by any line of demarcation or 

 membrane, and both sets of bioplasts have the same 

 origin. In the process of healing of a wound near 

 the surface of the body, "lymph" is poured out in 

 which may be found bioplasts which have descended 

 from white blood corpuscles. Of these, some produce 

 epithelium, others fibrous connective tissue, unless 

 they be too freely nourished, in which case they grow 

 and multiply rapidly, and no kind of tissue whatever 

 results, but pus 43 is alone formed. 



134. Formation of Fibres. Fibres may be drawn 

 out, as it were, from any mass of bioplasm in one, or 

 in two or more directions. The mass of living matter 

 may then assume an oval, spindle-shaped, or stellate 

 form. TJiin structureless expansions may be produced 

 directly by bioplasm, or fibrous-like membranes may 

 be formed. The "fibres" may run parallel, or may 

 cross at various angles, giving rise at last to a tissue 

 of such extraordinary complexity that it seems almost 

 hopeless to endeavour to unravel it, and impossible to 

 find out how fibres, running in so many different 



