FIBROUS TISSUE 



1039 



jni/i/iitinis. Tin- latter may be separated by careful tearing with 

 needles and forceps, after prolonged maceration in water, into several 

 matted lamella? resembling that represented in fig. 771 ; and similar 

 lamella* may be readily obtained from the shell itself by dissolving 



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FIG. 771. Fibrous membrane 

 from egg-shell. 



FIG. 772. Wliite fibrous ti 

 from ligament. 



au.-iy its linn- by dilute acid. The simply fibrous structures of the 



body generally. however, belong to one of two very definite kinds of 



tissue, the ' white ' and the ' yellow,' whose appearance, composition. 



and properties are very different. The white 



fibrous tissue, though sometimes apparently 



composed of distinct fibres, more commonly 



presents the aspect of bands, usually of a flat- 



tened form, and attaining the breadth of ^-^th 



of an inch, which are marked by numerous 



longitudinal streaks, but can seldom be torn up 



into minute fibres of determinate size. The 



fibres and bands are occasionally somewhat 



wavy in their direction; and they have a pern- 



liar tendency to fall into undulations, when it is 



attempted to tear them apart from each othei 



(fig. 772). This tissue is easily distinguished 



from the other by the effect of acetic acid. 



which swells it up and renders it transparent. 



at the same time bringing into view certain 



oval nuclear [(articles of 'germinal matter.' 



which are known as 'connective tissue cor- 



FIG. 773. Portion of 

 young tendon, show- 

 ing the corpuscles 

 of ' germinal matter,' 

 with their stellate 

 prolongations, inter- 

 posed among its fibres. 



pu>des.' These are relatively much larger, and 



their connections more distinct, in the earlier 



stages of the formation of this tissue (fig. 77- J >). 



It is perfectly inelastic ; and we find it in such 



parts as tendons, ordinary ligaments, fibrous 



capsules, itc. whose function it is to resist tension without yielding 



to it. It constitutes, also, the organic basis or matrix of bone ; for 



although the sul istance which is left when a bone has been macerated 



sufficiently long in dilute acid for all its mineral components to be 



