Renewed inquiries concerning the spiral structure of muscle, with observations on the muscularity of cilia / by Martin Barry, M.D.

  • Martin Barry
Date:
[1852]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Renewed inquiries concerning the spiral structure of muscle, with observations on the muscularity of cilia / by Martin Barry, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    cylinder, and so on. All these rows of cell-germs, arisen through division and subdivision of the nuclei of the primitive cells which arranged themselves in necklace-like order to form the first muscle tubes, as well as the germs of those primitive cells them- selves, are descended through division from those substances in the ovum which again had arisen fi'om the fecundated gcnninal spot or nucleus of the germinal vesicle. In a brief recapitulation concerning hyaline, the author states his Researches in Embryology as well as his observations on the Corpuscles of the Blood (Phil. Trans. 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841), to have afforded him abundant opportunity for becoming ac- quainted with it*. He found it in the so-called nucleolus of cells in general, as well as in the germinal spot of the germinal vesicle, to be the point of fecundation,—to be present in the head-like extremity of the spermatozoon,—to constitute as glo- bules, immeasui-ably minute, the foundation of cytoblasts, these being the real germs of cells. He showed that this hyaline forms as well the membrane as the contents of the cell,—that to it belong the functions of absoi'ption, assimilation, and secretion,— that so long as the vegetative process is in full activity it never ceases to be in operation, but divides and subdivides to form new cells, or rather to reproduce itself. For in the reproduction of cells, the maintenance, the division, and the increase of the hya- line appears to be the main purpose. It may be asked. What is there, then, in the organic body which is not formed through hyaline ? Truly nothing. It is the essentially living substance in the body, the whole organism is the product of its formative force. All cell-germs are really, through repeated self-division, effected by a remarkable assimilative process, descendants of the hyaline of the germinal vesicle, this having been fecundated by a substance from the male; whence the resemblance between the offspring and both its parents. Finally, referring to his observations on the mode of origin and structure of neiTC and other tissues, the author adds, that were it not that he would probably be blamed for excessive phantasy, he would not hesitate to declare the hya- line, as the foundation of the central nucleus of ganglion glo- bules and of the axis-cylinders of neiTCS, to be the immediate organ of sensation of every kind. * See the Eclinb. New Phil. Journ. Oct. 1843, a paper On Fissiparous Generation; and in the same Journal, Oct. 1847, another On the Nu- cleus of the Animal and Vegetable Cell.
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