ELASTIC FIBRES OF CONNECTIVE TISSUE. 83 



by means of solution of potash, no gelatine, in the ordinary 

 sense of the word, can be obtained. It must be admitted, how- 

 ever, that the elastic fibres themselves undergo solution on con- 

 tinuous boiling,* or on exposure to a temperature of 320 Fahr. 

 for thirty hours. By these means, however, only a non-gela- 

 tinising brownish fluid can be obtained, smelling of glue, and 

 precipitable by tannic acid. 



Moreover, if connective tissue be converted into gelatine by 

 digestion with acids, at 104 Fahr., the elastic fibres remain 

 unaffected. ) The elastic fibres are reddened with Millon's 

 reagent, and give the xantho-proteinic acid reaction. The 

 ligamentum nuchse, after being purified by successive treat- 

 ment with alcohol, ether, boiling water, acetic acid, and alkalies, 

 has been described and analysed by W. Miiller { under the name 

 of Elastin. 



In the elastic fibres of the skin and of the subserous layers of 

 the peritoneum, and of the chordae tendinese of the dog, Von 

 Recklinghausen saw, after treatment with nitrate of silver, a 

 black precipitate occur here and there in the interior of the 

 fibres, and is hence inclined to regard them as hollow. This 

 appearance does not occur in the fibres of the ligamentum 

 nuchse, nor in those of the elastic coat of the vessels. Frey|| 

 believed that he had witnessed a precipitation of carmine 

 granules in the interior of many elastic fibres after maceration 

 in a solution of carmine and ammonia, and subsequent neutrali- 

 zation with acetic acid ; but he is doubtful whether the question 

 of the tubular nature of the fibres can be thus decided. Von 

 WittichlT obtained no precipitate in the elastic fibres of the 

 ligamentum nuchse in his experiments with indigo. There is 

 certainly no indication of an internal cavity presented on the 

 examination of the broad transverse sections of the elastic fibres 

 of this ligament. 



* Eulenburg, De tela Elastica, Berlin, 1836 ; and J. Miiller, Poggendorf s 

 Annalen, 1836, Band xxxviii., p. 311. 



t Kiihne, Physiologische Chemie. Leipzig, 1866, p. 356. 

 t Zeitschriftfiir Rationelle Medicin, Band x., 3 R., p. 173. 

 Die Lymphgefasse, etc., p. 59. 



|1 Histologie und Histochemie. Leipzig, 1867, p. 247. 

 ^[ Archiv fur Pathologische Anatomic, Band x., p. 187. 



