48 THE CONNECTIVE TISSUES, BY A. ROLLETT. 



Even if our knowledge of such facts disposed us to collect 

 the tissues into a single category, this is still not the immediate 

 and primary reason that has led to the formation of a group of 

 connective substances. This last has become customary since 

 the experimental investigation of these tissues has shown that 

 they present similar modes of development, and possess con- 

 sequently an homologous significance in regard to their micro- 

 scopic constituents. 



The fate of the connective tissue theories thus originating 

 has been very variable. Reichert* first appeared with his doc- 

 trine of continuity of substance. According to this the connec- 

 tive tissues contain a matrix, originating in the fusion of cells, 

 or of certain portions of cells, with an amorphous intercellular 

 substance. Reichert associated with this mode of development 

 the peculiar connective tissue formerly regarded as fibrous, but 

 considered by him to be destitute of structure, and pointed 

 out that in both there was an absence of any apparent 

 boundary line between the allied tissues where they were in 

 contact with one another, or, as he expressed it, there was a 

 " continuity" of their matrix. 



This theory was, even from the first, strongly opposed by 

 Henle,f and did not in the first instance meet with general 

 acceptance. If the views on the absence of structure in con- 

 nective tissue taught by Reichert, and now disproved, found 

 certain adherents, amongst whom Virchow himself may be 

 included, it can scarcely be held, as however is frequently 

 done, that the connective tissue theory promulgated by 

 Yirchow in 1850, was only a modification of that of Reichert. 

 We are indebted to Virchow J arid Bonders for directing 

 attention to the persistence of cells in mature connective 

 tissue. Virchow, whilst he regarded the cells of connective 

 tissue (connective tissue corpuscles) as the analogues of 

 the cells of cartilage and bone, constructed a simple scheme |J 



* Beitrage zur vergleichenden Naturforschung, etc., Dorpat, 1845. 



t Canstatt's Jahresbericht, 1845, Bd. i., p. 55.; 1847, Bd. i., p. 44. 



J Wiirzburger Verhandlung, Bd. ii., pp. 154 and 314. 



Zeitschrift fiir wissenschaftliche Zoologie, Band iii., p. 348. 



I! Cellular Pathologic. 



