* 
AREOLAR TISSUE. 113 
are represented in pl. ITI, fig. 6, a, being spindle-shaped or 
longish corpuscles, which are thickest in the middle and gra- 
dually elongated at both extremities into minute fibres. They 
may therefore be described as consisting of a thicker portion, 
or body, and fibres, which proceed from it. 
The body is either round or slightly compressed upon the 
sides. The surface is covered with very minute granules. 
Within the thickest portion of it lies ‘another small corpuscle 
of a circular or generally oval form, and which again encloses 
one or two small dark points, and accords entirely with the 
common cell-nucleus. It is therefore probable, that the entire 
corpuscle is a cell containing a nucleus. The nuclei have not 
a similar size in all the cells; there is a much more striking 
variation, however, in the relative size of the cells and the 
nuclei. In the largest cells, such as a, fig. 6, the body is 
almost as thick again as the nucleus, and it may be observed 
that the nucleus does not lie in the centre, but upon the wall 
of the cell. In most instances, however, the cells are rela- 
tively smaller, scarcely larger indeed than the nucleus ; 
insomuch, that the fibres often appear to proceed immediately 
from the nucleus, as at 6 in the figure: the cell in 
that imstance encompasses the nucleus quite closely. Cells 
frequently become separated during the process of preparation 
for the microscope, and float about singly in the water, with a 
portion of the fibres issuing from them. By causing them to 
roll, when so detached, it may be satisfactorily seen that many 
of them are somewhat flattened laterally, and that the nucleus 
is attached to the inside of the cell-wall. The larger cells, 
under such circumstances, appear as though the granulous 
aspect were produced by the external wall only, therefore by 
the cell-membrane, the interior being filled with a clear fluid. 
The cells pass by a gradual process of acumination into the 
fibres, it being quite impossible to discern any defined boun- 
dary between them. ‘The fibres are pale, minutely granulous 
like the cells, and frequently give off branches. Their course 
is usually straight. It is difficult to find out how they terminate ; 
but they are generally lost in a bundle of extremely minute 
fibres. 
The above-described corpuscles, then, are the fibre-cells of 
areolar tissue in the middle stage of their development, a con- 
8 
