3 2 AGE, GROWTH, AND DEATH 



tissues especially by those which we call comprehen- 

 sively the connective tissues, which might perhaps be 

 best described to a general audience as that which is 

 the stuffing of the body and fills out all the gaps 

 between the organs proper. In consequence of per- 

 forming this general function, they are very properly 

 called connective tissues, since they connect all the 

 different organs and systems of organs in the body 

 together. Now in every body there is a continual 

 fighting of the parts. They battle together, they 

 struggle, each one to get ahead, but the nobler 

 organ, generally speaking, holds its own. There are 

 early produced from the brain the fine bundles of 

 fibres which we call the nerves, which run to the 

 nose, to the tongue, and to the various parts of the 

 body. When these appear all the parts of the body 

 are very soft. Afterwards comes in the hard and, we 

 should think, sturdy bone, but never, under normal 

 conditions, does the bone grow where the nerve is. 

 The nerve, soft and pulpy as it seems, resists abso- 

 lutely the encroachment of the bone, and though the 

 bone may grow elsewhere, and will grow elsewhere 

 the moment it gets a free opportunity, it cannot 

 beat the soft delicate nerve. 1 Similarly we find that 

 the substance which forms the liver is pulpy, very 



1 The nerve fibres of the olfactory membrane arise very early in the embryo 

 and form numerous separate bundles. Later the bone arises between the bun- 

 dles, for each of which a hole is left in the osseous tissue, so that the bone in 

 the adult has a sieve-like structure, and hence is termed the cribriform plate. 

 It offers a striking illustration of the inability of hard bone to disturb soft 

 nerve fibres. 



