90 Annalen der Physik and Chemie. 



an analysis in our fourth number. It chiefly relates to the Chemical 

 Structure of Cartilage, and the varieties of it which occur in different 

 animals. The analysis of the cartilage of Squalus peregrinus by Chev- 

 reuil, has been followed up with great accuracy by Purkinje, and 

 Deutsch.* The bony cartilage of the higher animals was examined by 

 them in the form of microscopic lamella, the tissue having been previ- 

 ously expelled by means of acid. They then found that this substance 

 contains many minute oval bodies dispersed through it, which, ac- 

 cording tof Miescher, not only occur in that situation, but also in 

 the callus of re-united bones, in bones imperfectly developed, &c. 

 The dimensions of these bodies are estimated in English lines, at 

 from 0.0048 to 0.0072 in length, by 0.0017 to 0.0030 in breadth. 

 These minute bodies generally lie lengthways in the direction of 

 the layers of cartilage, and are somewhat more opaque than the sur- 

 rounding substances. It is not easy to determine whether they are 

 hollow or solid. They seem to admit of great variety in their struc- 

 ture, in different parts, especially those which occur in the cartilage 

 of the ribs, in which situation they are often found lying confusedly 

 together, and contain apparently a sort of kernel. In the cartila- 

 ginous fishes, the contents of these bodies are more fluid, and in the 

 cartilage of Petromyzon, they vary in different parts, in one place 

 presenting the above-mentioned oval form, in another, cells, divided 

 by thin cartilaginous partitions, and in a third, an intermediate state 

 between these conditions. These bodies frequently also occur in 

 the external, as well as the internal cartilage of certain animals, as 

 for instance in the cuirass of the armadillo ; in cartilaginous bones 

 they are often wanting. They are not met with in the Ostracion, 

 in the tubercular cartilage of the sturgeon, nor in the skeletons of 

 many cartilaginous fishes. They are identical when they are found 

 in the cartilaginous bones of man, of the Mammalia, and of fishes, 

 but in the other cartilage of the two former classes, they present 

 great variations, which are arranged under three distinct heads by 

 Miescher. The glutinous matter contained in the different carti- 

 lages is divided by the author into two classes, to which he applies 

 the terms colla and chondrine, and he also gives the results of va- 

 rious analysis of cartilage in different states of ossification, and taken 

 from various parts of the body. The structure and chemical pro- 

 perties of the bones of the higher animals is next described, followed 

 by a similar detail of those of the cartilaginous fishes. M. Marchand 



* Deutsch de penitiori ossium structura. Vratisl. 1834. 



f Miescher de ossium genesi, structura, et vita. Berol. 1836. 



