THEORIES RESPECTING CONNECTIVE TISSUE. 71 



fibres, which afterwards appeared, were produced by a 

 direct fibrillation of the blastema ; and that, whilst the 

 intermediate substance was thus being differentiated into 

 fibres, the nuclei gradually became elongated, so as at 

 length to run into one another, and thus give rise to 

 peculiar longitudinal fibres, nucleus -fibres (Kernfasern) 

 (Fig. 19, C). Reichert took an extremely important 

 step in opposition to these views. He showed, namely, 

 that originally there were only cells, and those in great 

 abundance, between which intercellular substance was 

 deposited. But the membrane of the cells became, he 

 thought, at a certain period, blended with the intercel- 

 lular tissue, and then a stage was reached analogous to 

 that described by Henle, in which there no longer ex- 

 isted any boundary between the original cells and the 

 intermediate substance. And, finally, he imagined that 

 the nuclei, too, entirely disappeared in some instances, 

 whilst they were preserved in others. On the other 

 hand, he positively denied the occurrence of the spindle- 

 shaped cells of Schwann, and declared all such, as well 

 as the caudate and jagged cells, to be just as much 

 artificial products as the fibres, which were said to be 

 seen in the intervening substance, were a false interpre- 

 tation of an optical image. 



Now, my own investigations have shown, that both 

 Schwann's and Reichert's observations, -up to a certain 

 point, have some foundation in truth. That, in the first 

 place, in opposition to Reichert, spindle-shaped and stel- 

 late cells indisputably do exist (Fig. 20) ; and secondly, 

 in opposition to Schwann, and with Reichert, that a 

 direct splitting up of the cells into fibres does not take 

 place, but that on the contrary, what is afterwards pre- 

 sented to our sight as connective tissue has really taken 

 the place of the previously homogeneous intercellular 

 substance. I have found, moreover, that Reichert, 



