Connective Substances. By T. E. Satterthwaiie. 195 
distinctly demonstrated by what is known as the silver method.* 
The subject of these endothelial bodies is now attracting the 
attention of histologists, and promises valuable results. The views 
of later writers have so far agreed, that they have come to regard 
the fixed corpuscles of these substances not as spindle-shaped, 
but rather as thin, delicate, and plate-like. This view has, how- 
ever, been attacked by Waldeyer as a generahzation that has been 
carried too far. He believes that the corpuscles or so-called plate- 
like cells of tendon tissue and fibrous membranes are not simple, but 
complicated structures, and not single plates, but rather a number 
of plates meeting one another at different angles. The extremities 
of these plates terminate in fine processes that often anastomose 
with corresponding processes of other corpuscles ; the nucleus is 
found on one of these plates. As for the corneal corpuscles, which 
have been so much discussed, he believes they are plate-like bodies, 
which are provided with distinct protoplasm about the nucleus, the 
amount diminishing towards the periphery, but in general charac- 
teristics do not differ much from the corpuscles of tendons and 
other fibrous tissues. The nuclei are difficult to make out, and are 
sometimes round, sometimes elongated like narrow rods, and some- 
times are knobbed at each end, sometimes crescentic, and sometimes 
cruciform, though generally ovaLt 
It may be regarded as a fair statement of the case^ if we say 
that most histologists believe that these tissues, generally, though 
we shall except from them elastic tissue, consist of certain fixed 
corpuscles of a plate-like form superimposed upon bundles of fibrils 
of indefinite length. As further exceptions to this may be men- 
tioned, mucous tissue proper, in which there are no bundles ; 
perhaps also, adenoid tissue, for it is said by Klein to be made 
up of netted cells, without bundles or fibres ; so, too, it does not 
appear that the statement has ever been made that the neuroglia 
contains these peculiar bodies. The intermuscular tissue of the 
frog's thigh is also regarded by many as having no fibrils excepting 
those of elastic tissue. 
Thus we see that, excepting only in the character of the 
corpuscles, there is not much agreement among observers, and even 
on this point there is difference of opinion. 
It has seemed impossible to get a clear idea of these matters in 
any other way than by a systematic study of each and every one 
of the forms, subjecting them as nearly as possible to the same 
method of examination. This accordingly has been done, and the 
main inquiries have been directed toward — 1. The general cha- 
racter and dimensions of the corpuscles in each ; 2. Their relations 
to one another ; 3. The character of the intercellular substance. 
* ' Medicinische Jahrbuclier,' iii. and iv., 1874. 
+ ' Archiv. f. mikrosk. Anotomie,' i., 1875, p. 176, 
VOL. XVI. 
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