98 LECTURE III. 



sues must be regarded as a decisive proof of their inti- 

 mate relationship. That as soon as one part could 

 be made out to be continuously (by union, not mere 

 juxtaposition) connected with another, both must be 

 regarded as parts of a common whole. In this manner he 

 sought to prove that cartilage, periosteum, bone, tendons, 

 fascise, etc., really formed a continuous mass, a kind of 

 .basis-tissue (Grundgewebe) for the body, a connective sub- 

 stance, which had only experienced certain changes in 

 these different localities, without their being, however, 

 of such a nature as to destroy the character of the tis- 

 sue as such. This so-called law of continuity soon suf- 

 fered the most violent shocks, and quite recently such a 

 terrible breach has been made in it, that it can scarcely 

 any longer be possible to derive therefrom any general 

 criterion for the determination of the nature of a tissue. 

 On the other hand, namely, new facts have been con- 

 tinually brought forward in support of the continuity ot 

 such histological elements as, according to Reichert, would 

 be separated toto ccelo from one another, as, for example, 

 of epithelial and connective tissue ; and there has been 

 a continually increasing mass of evidence in support of 

 the assertion that cylindrical epithelium is capable of 

 becoming elongated into fibres, which in the shape of 

 filaments anastomose with connective-tissue corpuscles. 

 Nay, it has been quite recently asserted by a whole 

 series of observers that these superficial cells are pro- 

 longed inwardly, and then enter into direct connection 

 with nerve-fibres. With regard to this last point, I 

 must confess that I am not yet convinced of the correct- 

 ness of the representation ; but with respect to the for- 

 mer one, that is a matter which will probably end in the 

 demonstration of the real continuity of the elements. 

 It would seem, therefore, that it is even now no longer 

 possible to mark out the exact limits which divide every 



