CARTILAGE. 
139 
in which the cells are imbedded. The matrix may either 
be perfectly homogeneous in structure, or granular, and 
structureless intercellular substance. Around some of 
these cells there is a faint trace of cell- wall, and it 
becomes a question whether many of them should not 
be considered as altered nuclei. 
Cartilage is sometimes found in large masses, as a 
product of disease, in the form of tumours, termed 
Enchondroma by Muller. These tumours may be 
formed in connexion with any of the bones, but are 
more frequently attached to the phalanges, and the 
bones of the extremities. They are made up of cells 
like those of cartilage, but occasionally they also contain 
cells of a very peculiar form, Fig. Ill, B, bearing a 
striking resemblance to the lacunae of bones, but more 
especially to the cells found in the cartilage of the 
Cuttle-fish , above mentioned ; to these tumours I shall 
it is not unfrequently fibrous ; to this substance I would 
FIG . in. give the name of intercellu- 
lowest animal in which I have 
been able to meet with carti- 
lage is the Cuttle-fish. In this 
cephalopod it occurs in the 
form of a rudimentary skele- 
ton ; the cells (Fig. Ill, a) 
are small, more or less irregu- 
lar in figure, like the cells of 
bone ; and are imbedded in a 
B 
a, cartilage of the Cuttle-fish, 
Sepia officinalis. b, portion of 
an Enchondroma. 
