DR. MARTIN BARRY ON FIBRE. 91 



unwinding-; lastly, that filaments having the same structure as the foregoing, are to 

 be met with apparently in every tissue of the body. 



9. I proceed to enumerate the parts in which I have observed the same kind of 

 filaments ; without stopping to point out peculiarities in their size or in their mode 

 of combination in the various parts. Future observers will find, that while in some 

 parts they have coalesced to produce a membrane, have themselves passed into 

 tubes, or are otherwise rendered indistinct, they retain their form remarkably, 

 being sometimes crossed in various directions, or at other times lying parallel. 

 Some remarks on this subject will be found in the explanation of the figures, as 

 for instance in that of the cornea (fig. 91). The parts in which I have noticed the 

 filaments in question are these : the cortical and medullary substance of both the 

 cerebrum and cerebellum, the spinal chord, the optic nerve and retina, the olfac- 

 tory and auditory nerves, nerves connected with the spinal chord, voluntary and 

 involuntary muscle, (the latter including the muscle in all parts of the alimentary 

 canal, and the Fallopian tube and uterus, as well as blood-vessels, the iris and the 

 heart), tendon, elastic tissue, cellular and fatty tissue, serous membranes (peri- 

 toneum, pericardium, and arachnoid membrane), various parts of the so-called 

 mucous membrane-f-, the lining membrane of the large blood-vessels and the valve 

 of a large vein, the skin, the dura mater and the sheath of the spinal chord, liga- 

 ment, the gums and palate, the stroma of the ovary, the testis and the walls of 

 the vas deferens, the kidney and ureter, the glans, as well as the corpus spongio- 

 sum and corpus cavernosum penis, the coats of the gall-bladder and of the cystic 

 duct, the pancreas, the liver. I found them along with the marrow from a bone ; be- 

 tween the rings of the trachea, as well as in the substance of the lungs, and the gills 

 of the common Mussel ; in the parenchyma of the spleen, the lachrymal gland, the 

 sclerotic coat of the eye, the conjunctiva, the cornea, the membrane of the vitreous 

 humour, the capsule of the crystalline lens, the lens itself, the cartilage of the ear 

 and cartilage of bone, bone itself, the periosteum, the claw of the Bird, the shell- 

 membrane of the egg, substance connecting the ova of the Crab, silk, hair, the 

 incipient feather, the feather-like objects from the wing of the Butterfly and Gnat, 

 and the Spider's web. These are the principal of the animal structures in which I 

 have found filaments such as those above described. 



10. Of plants, I subjected to microscopic examination the root, stem, leaf-stalk 

 and leaf, besides the several parts of the flower : and in no instance where a fibrous 

 tissue existed, did I fail to find filaments of the same kind. This was in the Phane- 

 rogamia. On subsequently examining portions indiscriminately taken from Ferns, 

 Mosses, Fungi, Lichens, and several of the marine Algae, I met with an equally 

 general distribution of the same kind of filaments. 



11. The flat filament seen by me in all these structures, of both animals and 



t I saw a curious interlacement of these filaments on the villi of the lining membrane of the rectum in the 

 Rabbit. 



N 2 



