CARTILAGES. 283 



elongated, sometimes flattened and compressed ; at others, 

 they are perfectly spherical : these several shapes depend 

 upon the degree of pressure to which the cells are subject, 

 and which is greatest at the free margins of the cartilages 

 where the compressed form occurs, and least in the centre 

 where the spherical cells are chiefly encountered. Each cell 

 contains a nucleus which is either smooth or granular ; it 

 includes also very generally one or more shining and globular 

 bodies of an oleaginous or fatty nature, and which, in many 

 cases, are to be regarded as transformed nuclei. 



The cells usually lie as it were scattered irregularly 

 throughout the intercellular substance ; in some cases, how- 

 ever, they are arranged in definite order ; thus in the con- 

 densed margin of all the true cartilages the cells are com- 

 pressed, and lie with their long axes disposed parallel to the 

 surface. (See Plate XXX. fig. 1.) Again, in the ribs, they 

 radiate in straight lines from the centre towards the circum- 

 ference : this disposition of them accounts for the fibrous 

 fracture which they exhibit when broken across, as also for 

 the fact of their being divisible into thin transverse layers. 

 The linear arrangement of the cells in the fully developed 

 cartilages of the ribs is very frequently not perceptible. 



In very thin cartilaginous Iamina3, as those forming the 

 alae of the nose, the difference in the form of the central and 

 periphral cells does not exist, the entire intercellular sub- 

 stance being filled with small and rounded cells. 



The cells usually occur singly in the hyaline matrix ; they 

 are, however, frequently encountered in groups of two, three, 

 or four cells, each of which is distinct, and describes a more 

 or less regular segment of a circle : this disposition of the 

 cells is connected with their mode of multiplication, as will 

 be seen hereafter. 



Again, groups of secondary cells sometimes occur espe- 

 cially in the iritervertebral fibro- cartilages, included in the 

 membrane of the primary or parent cell. (See Plate 

 XXXI.) 



Moreover, Henle * has noticed a peculiar arrangement of 



* Anat, Gen., vol. vii. p. 366. 

 A A 3 



