DEVELOPMENT OF CONNECTIVE TISSUE. 85 



cording to Virehow,* Donders,-f- and KollikerJ take no share in 

 the fibrillation of the tissue, but persist in a somewhat atrophied 

 condition as cells (Virehow, Kolliker), or become converted into 

 a plasmatic canal system (Virehow), or, lastly, pass through 

 transitional forms into a plexus of elastic fibres (Bonders). 



Max Schultze and Beale,|| as has been already stated, and 

 with whom many others agree, consider the matrix which is 

 gradually assuming a fibrillar form, to be the protoplasm of mem- 

 braneless embryonic cells which have fused with one another, 

 and the remains of which, after the formation of the fibrils, 

 are represented by the nuclei with a little unaltered protoplasm 

 around them, constituting the so-called connective tissue cor- 

 puscles. 



Very recently, Kusnetzoff IF and Obersteiner** have main- 

 tained that the fibrils of connective tissue originate immediately 

 from the outgrowth of undivided or branched processes of the 

 cells. 



In opposition to these various views we must first fix our 

 attention on those definite forms with which we meet in 

 following out the development of connective tissue through 

 as many stages as possible. 



And, in the first place, it must be remarked that the tendons 

 and other more dense connective tissue structures, do not fur- 

 nish the most appropriate objects for examination. Better spe- 

 cimens are obtained from the thin laminse of serous membranes 

 which were used by Henle and Baur. The peritoneum of 

 the embryo of man and other animals, preserved in Miiller's 

 fluid, constitutes an exceptionally good object for examination. 



After removal of the epithelium it will there be seen that the 

 superficial layer consists of roundish or somewhat elongated 

 closely compressed cells. In the embryo of a sheep, measuring 



* Loc. cit. 



t Loc. cit., Band iii., p. 348. 



\ Neue Untersuchungen itber die Entwickelung des Bindegeweles. Wurz- 

 burg, 1861. Gewebelehre. Leipzig, 1867, p. 76. 

 Reichert and Du Bois' Archiv, 1861, p. 13. 

 || Loc. cit. 

 5[ Sitzungsberichte der Wiener Akademie, Bai 



