96 THE CONNECTIVE TISSUES, BY A. ROLLETT. 



into proper (true, hyaline) cartilage, and fibrous cartilage is no 

 longer admissible, since it has been shown that just as the 

 former consists of cells imbedded in a transparent and appa- 

 rently uniform matrix, the latter is composed of similar cells 

 in a matrix traversed by fibres. 



TRUE OR HYALINE CARTILAGE contains cells provided with 

 nuclei (cartilage corpuscles) lying in cavities of various size 

 and form distributed through an amorphous matrix, and the 

 corpuscles closely resemble the cavities in their form. 



In order to demonstrate these points, it is only requisite to 

 make very fine sections of fresh cartilage. If it be desired to 

 investigate cartilage in a physiologically fresh condition, only 

 indifferent fluids can be employed, as in the case of connective 

 tissue. For such observations those cartilaginous plates of 

 cold-blooded animals which can be easily isolated from the 

 soft parts, and are as thin as ordinary sections as, for example, 

 the ensiform process or the episternal cartilage of the frog, or 

 the thin cartilaginous plates of the shoulder girdle of tritons 

 are preferable. 



In such cartilages, the cells lying in the interior of the 

 cavities appear when fresh as transparent, finely granular 

 masses completely filling them up, and resembling the proto- 

 plasm of other cells. A small number of large granules are 

 found in their interior, together with a well-defined round 

 nucleus, containing several strongly refractile, large, and bright 

 molecules, which are usually larger than those found in the 

 protoplasm of ordinary cells,causing the nucleus, when compared 

 with these, to present a coarsely granular appearance (fig. 6) ; 

 the nucleus occasionally appears transparent and vesicular, with 

 double contour lines and a single nucleolus. Two nuclei may 

 frequently be seen in one cell. If, as in the case of connective 

 tissue, an indifferent fluid be applied, like the aqueous humour, 

 or serum diluted with distilled water, a cloudiness first occurs in 

 the granular cell substance ; the fine molecules originally pre- 

 sent become partially concealed in portions of the cell substance 

 which have rolled themselves into ball-like masses, and soon a 

 shrivelling of the cell becomes apparent, so that it either 

 partially or entirely separates from the wall of the cavity in 



