On the supposed development of the animal tissues from cells
The author controverts the prevailing theory of the developement of animal tissues from cells, and denies the accuracy of the microscopical observations on which that theory is founded, as regards the anatomy of the adult as well as of the fœtal tissues. He asserts that at no period of fœtal life can rows of cells be discovered in the act of transformation into muscular fibres: and lie denies that these fibres increase either in length or in thickness by the deposition o new cells. He contends that the ultimate filaments of muscles, as well as all the other tissues of the body, arc formed from the fibrinous portion of the blood, which is itself composed of globules that are disposed to cohere together, either in a linear series, so as to form a net-work of fine filaments, or in aggregated masses of a form more or less globular, composing what have been termed fibrinous corpuscles. These corpuscles have been considered to be the nuclei of cells; but the author regards them as being merely accidental fragments of broken down tissues, adhering to the filaments, and noways concerned in their developement. The more regularly disposed granules, which are observed to occupy the spaces intervening between the filaments composing the ordinary cellular tissue, he considers as being fatty matter deposited within these spaces. He, in like manner, regards the observations tending to show the cellular origin of the fibrous, cartilaginous, and osseous tissues, as altogether fallacious; and maintains that the cells, which these animal textures exhibit when viewed under the microscope, are simply spaces occurring in the more solid substance of these structures, like the cavities which exist in bread. These views are pursued by the author in discussing the formation of the skin, the blood-vessels, and the nerves, and in controverting the theory of secretion, founded on the action of the interior surfaces of the membranes constituting cells.