In the finest tracheal tubes (·0001 in. and under) the intima is to all appearance homogeneous. In wider tubes it is strengthened by a spiral thread, which is denser, more refractive, and more flexible than the intervening membrane. The thread projects slightly into the lumen of the tube, and is often branched. It is interrupted frequently, each length making but a few turns round the tube, and ending in a point. The thread of a branch is never continued into a main trunk. Both the thread and the intervening membrane become invisible or faint when the tissue is soaked with a transparent fluid, so as to expel the air. Both, but especially the thread, absorb colouring matter with difficulty. The thread, from its greater thickness, offers a longer resistance to solvents, such as caustic alkalies, and also to mechanical force; it can therefore be readily unrolled, and often projects as a loose spiral from the end of a torn tube, while the membrane breaks up or crumbles away.[149] [149] Investigators are not yet agreed as to the minute structure of the tracheal thread. Chun (Abh. d. Senkenberg. Naturf. Gesells., Bd. X., 1876) considers it an independent chitinous formation, not a mere thickening of the intima. He describes the thread as solid. The intima itself is, he believes, divisible in the larger tubes into an inner and an outer layer, into both of which the thread is sunk. Macloskie (Amer. Nat., June, 1884) describes the spiral as a fine tubule, opening by a fissure along its length. He regards it as a hollow crenulation of the intima, and continuous therewith. Packard (Amer. Nat. Mag., May, 1886) endeavours to show that the thread is not spiral, but consists of parallel thickenings of the intima. He is unable to find proof of the tubular structure, or of the external fissure. We have specially examined the trachea of the Cockroach, and find that the thread can readily be unwound for several turns. It is truly spiral. [Illustration: Fig. 84.--Intima (chitinous lining) of a large tracheal tube. The spiral thread divides here and there. Copied from MacLeod, loc. cit., fig. 9.] The large tracheal tubes close to the spiracles are without spiral thread, and the intima is here subdivided into polygonal areas, each of which is occupied by a reticulation of very fine threads. This structure may be traced for a short distance between the turns of the spiral thread. The chitinogenous layer of the tracheal tubes is single, and consists of polygonal, nucleated cells, forming a mosaic pattern, but becoming irregular and even branched in the finest branches. The cell walls are hardly to be made out without staining. Externally, the chitinogenous cells rest upon a delicate basement membrane.