102 
Dr. Beale, on the so-called 
Mr, Rainey's Observations on the Process of Ossification. 
Mr. Eainey has shown how globules of calcareous mat- 
ter deposited in a viscid matrix gradually coalesce, and at 
length assume somewhat the appearance presented by tis- 
sues during the process of calcification. This observer goes 
so far as to attribute the entire formation, not only of such 
tissues as bone, teeth, shell, &c., but soft tissues (as, for 
example, the crystalline lens), to physical and chemical 
changes alone. 
Now, no one has yet produced artificially a tissue that 
could be mistaken for bone or dentine, nor has the slightest 
approach ever been made towards the production of any soft 
tissue that exhibits any special anatomical characters. Nor 
has a particle of anything having the chemical composition 
and physical characters of the matrix of cartilage or any form 
of fibrous tissue ever been formed by artificial process. It 
is, therefore, somewhat premature to advance such a generali- 
zation as this, and I shall endeavour to show that the con- 
clusions are not justified even as regards bone. 
I regret to be compelled here to bring forward evidence 
against Mr. E,ainey^s conclusions ; but as his statements are 
most positive, and have been accepted by some writers as 
evidence in favour of certain views, according to which the 
formation of tissues generally is ascribed to physical processes, 
as, for example, the attraction towards each other of mole- 
cules by gravitation, unfortunately the only course left is to 
give to conclusions resulting from observations which have 
been conclusively proved to be erroneous, the most distinct 
and positive contradiction. Mr. Rainey says that the pro- 
duction of bone takes place independently of cells or cell- 
germs, and that when cartilage ossifies, the globules and 
rings of calcareous* matter deposited in the matrix have no 
definite relation to the cartilage- cells. Now, I submit a 
specimen of the cartilage of the temporal bone of the frog 
(Prep. 5) to the examination of the members of the Micro- 
scopical Society. Mr. Rainey^s drawings, illustrating the 
process of ossification, as it occurs according to him, have 
been copied in figs. 9 and 10. He does not represent 
one single nucleus in either drawing.^ I cannot but 
believe that when the specimens from which these drawings 
have been copied were part of the living frog, nuclei were 
present in great number. In the first a nucleus must have 
existed in every space left blank; Mr. Rainey exhibits ten 
* • On the Formation of Shells, &c.' 
