716 



STRUCTURE OF CONNECTIVE TISSUE. 



Telloic Fibrous Tissue from Ligamentum Nuchse of 

 Calf. 



it enters largely into the composition of Areolar or Connective 

 Tissue. 



559. The Tissue formerly known to Anatomists as 'cellular,' 



but now more pro- 

 Fig. 377. P erl y designated 



Connective or 

 A reolar Tissue, 

 consists of a net- 

 work of minute 

 fibres and bands, 

 which are inter- 

 woven in every 

 direction, so as 

 to leave innumer- 

 able areola or 

 little spaces that 

 c o m m u nicate 

 freely with one 

 another. Of these 

 fibres, some are 

 of the Yellow or 

 elastic kind ; but 

 the majority are 

 composed of the White fibrous tissue ; and, as in that form of 

 elementary structure, they frequently present the form of broad 

 flattened bands or membranous shreds, in which no distinct fibrous 

 arrangement is visible. The proportion of the two forms varies, 

 according to the amount of elasticity, ^or of simple resisting power, 

 which the endowments of the part may require. We find this 

 tissue in a very large proportion of the bodies of higher Animals ; 

 thus it binds-together the ultimate Muscular fibres into minute 

 fasciculi, unites these fasciculi into larger ones, these again into 

 still larger ones which are obvious to the eye, and these into 

 the entire Muscle ; whilst it also forms the membranous divisions 

 between distinct muscles. In like manner it unites the elements 

 of Nerves, Glands, &c, binds together the Fat-cells into minute 

 masses, these into large ones, and so on ; and in this way penetrates 

 and forms part of all the softer organs of the body. But whilst 

 the Fibrous structures of which the 'formed tissue' is composed 

 have a purely Mechanical function, there is good reason to regard 

 the ' Connective-tissue-corpuscles ' which are everywhere dispersed 

 among them, as having a most important function in the first 

 production and subsequent maintenance of the more definitely 

 organized portions of the fabric (§ 540). In these Corpuscles 

 distinct movements, analogous to those of the sarcodic extensions of 

 Rhizopods, have lately been recognized in transparent parts, such 

 as the Cornea of the Eye and the Tail of the young Tadpole, by 

 observations made on these parts whilst living. — For the display of 

 the characters of the Fibrous tissues, small and thin shreds may 



