156 Intimate Structure of Cartilage. 



1st. The most constant is the " granular cell " of Messrs. 

 Tomes and De Morgan, the cartilage corpuscle of most 

 authors ; the germinal matter of Beale ; but, for reasons 

 which will presently be seen, I would call " the cartilage 

 cell." 



2nd. An intercellular substance in which the cells are 

 imbedded. 



3rd. In some situations capsules which invest the cells, 

 structures between the cells and the intercellular substance. 



OF THE CARTILAGE CELL. 



The cells have been thus obtained. Pieces of ossifying 

 cartilage were soaked in a solution of magenta for two days, 

 afterwards washed' for four days in distilled water, and sub- 

 sequently in glycerine for two or three months, so as to allow 

 of repeated observations. Many of these cells are seen 

 lying perfectly detached from the matrix ; they are of 

 the same sizes and shapes as the vacant spaces from 

 which they have escaped. Nearly all possess a distinct 

 nucleus, with granular, and very frequently fatty contents. 

 They are the most persistent and characteristic structure of 

 cartilage, resisting the action of boiling, their contained fat 

 becoming liquified, and refracting the light very brilliantly ; 

 they remain undestroyed by concentrated sulphuric acid and 

 caustic potash, which visibly affect, and apparently dissolve, 

 the intercellular substance. Water soon renders them indis- 

 tinct, but glycerine preserves well their form. Not only 

 are they persistent in structure, but they may be traced from 

 the cartilage into the bone, in which I believe they become, 

 as stated by Messrs. Tomes and De Morgan, the lacunae or 

 cells of that tissue.* 



The cell may very easily be examined apart from the 

 matrix. 



* Beale says, that when soaked in water thegerminal matter, and soft imper- 

 fectly developed formed material (i.e. cartilage cell and nucleus) break down 

 and become liquified, and that then the cartilage appears as a matrix con- 

 taining numerous vacuoles or spaces. By the process I have employed these 

 cells may be preserved entire and separate from the matrix for months, and 

 very probably for years, retaining their form so as to discountenance the idea 

 of their gradually shading off and blending the forward material or matrix. 

 From a piece of temporary cartilage thus treated they may with the point of a 

 needle be turned out- entire, with forms as definite as those of starch 

 granules for instance. 



