PROGRESS OF MICROSCOPICAL SCIENCE. 
95 
structures, which are best characterized as " compound plates," and 
may be compared to the form of a wheel. A clear conception of the 
form of these cells is best obtained in the following way: Open a 
book so that its leaves are kept asunder in groups of four, five, or 
six, which meet each other at various angles ; the whole then makes 
the same impression as a tendon-cell in miniature. One has not to 
do with one plate, but with several which are disposed in dififerent 
ways irregularly one over the other. The margins of these plates are 
not cut off straight, but project into numerous fine processes, often of 
considerable length, so that the processes from two neighbouring cells 
may anastomose ; just like the tendon-cells are the so-called fixed 
cells of fibrous membranes and those of the loose connective tissue. 
In fact, these cells are neither simple nucleated plates nor spindles, 
but are " compound plates," of which one, the " chief plate " (Haupt- 
platte, W.), generally contains the nucleus. The other plates are 
of smaller size, and appear like little wings, which are attached to the 
chief plate at acute or almost right angles, and which, just like the 
margins of the chief plate, send out many small thread-like processes. 
Where bundles of fibrillar connective tissue are present, they 
insinuate themselves into the spaces which exist between two plates or 
wings resting on each other. The cells never lie, however, directly on 
the bundles themselves, but are always separated by a more or less 
strongly developed interfascicular, i. e. interlamellar cement from the 
proper fibrillar mass, so that the cells themselves are buried in cavities 
in this cement (" Saftraiime," " Juice spaces " of von Eecklinghausen). 
The " elastic stripes " of Boll, according to the author, only represent 
the side view of a neighbouring plate. 2. The Fixed Cornea-corpuscles. 
— In the ' Handbuch der Augenheilkunde,' by von Graefe and Samisch, 
the author has described the cornea-corpuscles as flat bodies, possess- 
ing a considerable quantity of finely granular protoplasm arranged 
around a nucleus which towards the periphery, however, passes into a 
more homogeneous plate, provided with obvious processes which partly 
anastomose with those of other cells, and partly end free, so that all 
the Saftcanalchen are not filled with processes of the cornea-corpuscles. 
To this description the author adds that the cornea-corpuscles also, 
like those of tendon and connective tissue, are provided with delicate 
secondary plates. The nuclei lie in the centre, near the place of 
junction of the plates ; the latter themselves — mostly two or three 
secondary plates to one chief plate — become quite thin, and are like a 
veil at the margins, and are there provided with processes. 3. Large 
Connective-tissue Cells, rich in Protoplasm. — Besides the cell-plates, 
there occurs in the connective tissue another group of cells, not so 
numerous, but quite as important as these ; large, more rounded cells, 
rich in protoplasm (embryonal cells of the connective-tissue or plasma 
cells, Waldeyer). They are found sporadically in the subcutaneous 
connective tissue, and in all fibrous and serous membranes, mostly in 
the neighbourhood of the blood-vessels. They are distinguished from 
the wandering cells by their greater dimensions, and by the absence of 
amoeboid movements. Certain peculiar groups of cells, whose his- 
tological significance up to this time was not obvious, are nothing 
