AREOLAR TISSUE. 115 
velopment are rendered smooth, become distinctly and indivi- 
dually discernible, and assume their waving course; in short, 
they acquire the appearance of the ordinary fibres of areolar 
tissue. (See the figure.) As the process of splitting advances 
from both sides towards the nucleus, the fibres in its neigh- 
bourhood are those which are longest united together, and 
that part of the cell is the last to undergo division. The 
nucleus remains for a time lying upon the fasciculus of 
fibres ; and when it is at last absorbed, we have a bundle of 
fibres in the place of the original cell. The figure repre- 
sents a nucleated cell, which is elongated at the upper end 
into the characteristic fibres of areolar tissue, each one being 
individually perceptible; the upper part of the body of this 
cell has also begun to split into fibres. With regard to 
the elongation downwards, it is not possible to distinguish 
whether there are separate fibres yet formed, and collected into 
a cord, or whether it is still merely a simple prolongation of 
the cell. 
It now becomes a question how the elongation of the 
cells into fibres, and their division, and at a later period 
the splitting of the body of the cell also into more minute 
fibres, can be conceived to take place. We have already 
observed a prolongation of the cells into fibres in several in- 
stances, and have traced it minutely in the stellated pigment- 
cells. The only difference between them and the fibre-cells of 
areolar tissue is, that in the latter, the elongation generally 
takes place in two opposite directions only, a circumstance 
which also frequently occurs with pigment-cells ; whilst, on the 
other hand, the cells of areolar tissue also frequently become 
elongated into fibres on several sides ; see, for example, pl. III, 
fig. 8. There is often a striking resemblance in form between 
some of the cells of areolar tissue and those of pigment ; com- 
pare, for instance, pl. III, fig. 6 a, with pl. I, fig. 8e. Analogy 
would lead us to regard those fibres as hollow; but since the 
cell-contents are not so characteristic in them as they are in 
the pigment-cells, a cavity might really exist, but not fall 
under observation, in consequence of the minuteness of the 
fibre ; the appearance of the fibres, therefore, proves nothing, 
either in favour of or against their hollowness. Since, however, 
we are already acquainted-with many extremely minute hollow 
