116 AREOLAR TISSUE. 
prolongations of cells, and as the transformation of the cells 
into fibres in the areolar tissue, takes place by a gradual 
acumination, it seems to me, for the present, more probable 
that they are hollow rather than solid. If we imagine the 
formation of the fibres from a cell to take place by the 
cell-wall growing more vigorously at two opposite limited 
spots than it does at any other part, we can then conceive 
that the division of these main fibres into branches, and their 
prolongation into fibrils, may be effected by the same process. 
The question as to the hollowness or solidity of these fibrils, is 
still less capable of being settled by observation than that 
with respect to the larger fibres. Analogy is in favour of 
their being hollow, and the mimuteness of an object forms 
no limit to nature’s operations. 
The splitting into fibres, which, as we have seen, pursues a 
retrograde course from the branches towards the main fibres, 
and thence towards the body of the cell, might be illus- 
trated in the followmg manner :—suppose that part of a_ 
glove which corresponds to the hand to be the body of a cell, 
and the fingers to be a fasciculus of fibrils. If the membrane 
situate in the angle between two fingers grow in the 
direction of the hand, the glove will at length be split into 
five portions. But a difficulty arises with respect to the 
fibre-cells of areolar tissue, which is, that the division imto 
fibres advances from two opposite sides towards the body of the 
cell, and, therefore, the fibres of one side must ultimately cor- 
respond with those of the other. This, however, admits of no 
further explanation than the healing of the corresponding pri- 
mitive fibres in the reproduction of nerves does. Meanwhile 
the above are only attempts to convey a clear idea of the 
results of my imvestigations, modes of representation which are 
susceptible of various modifications, provided they be not made 
to contradict the observations ; the latter may be briefly summed 
up as follows :—cells, furnished with the characteristic nucleus, — 
are present in the first instance, which become elongated on 
two opposite sides, more rarely on several sides, into fibres, and 
these are prolonged into more minute fibres. Ata later period 
the principal fibres, and then also the bodies of the cells are 
split into fibres, so that a small fasciculus of fibrils, with a— 
nucleus fixed upon it, remains in the place of the original single 
