80 THE CONNECTIVE TISSUES, BY A. ROLLETT. 



the above-mentioned coiled or ring-like arrangement of fibres 

 around the fasciculi is absent. 



It cannot therefore be maintained that the fibrils and fasci- 

 culi swim in a fluid equally distributed amongst them, as 

 Engelmann* holds to be the case in the cornea, nor can we 

 admit with Hisj* that the mucous or mucoid substance, nor the 

 above-mentioned cementing material, is quite equally distributed 

 between the fibrils and fasciculi. The experiments made by 

 Von Wittich, J in which he endeavoured to demonstrate experi- 

 mentally the existence of the plasmatic canal system of Virchow, 

 by allowing tendons to absorb particles of indigo through the 

 action of capillarity, and in which he found a finely divided 

 blue precipitate in the tendons, do indeed speak in favour of 

 this view. It is impossible, however, to prove by such means 

 that the passages between the firmly united fasciculi and fibrils 

 can be represented in the form of a canal system communicating 

 with the origins of the lymphatic capillaries, analogous to that 

 described by Von Recklinghausen under the name of serous 

 canals, from the appearances presented after treatment with 

 nitrate of silver. These questions will be discussed in the 

 section on the lymphatic system. It must be acknowledged, 

 however, in regard to the migrating cells of this form of tissue 

 considered generally that they cannot enter it at any point 

 indiscriminately, but only through determinate passages, result- 

 ing not only from the impermeability of the collagenous 

 substance, but also from the unequal distribution of the firmer 

 cementing substance. 



The mode in which the cells of the fibrillar tissue can best be 

 represented and investigated has already been given. If we 

 have pursued this plan with tissue in as fresh a condition as 

 possible, it will always be found that fibrils and cells are coin- 

 cidently brought into view (figs. 2 and 3). It may here further 



* Ueber die Hornhaut des Auges, " On the Cornea." Leipzig, 1867, p. 6. 



t Die Haute und Hohlen des Korpers, " The Membranes and Cavities of 

 the Bi dy." Basel, 1865, p. 23. 



J Virchow's Archiv, Band ix., p. 187. 



Die Lymphgefdsse und ihre Beziehung zum Bindegewebe, " The Lymph 

 Vessels, and their relations to Connective Tissue." Berlin, 1862. 



