DE. BEALE, 0\ THE TISSUES. 87 



this tissue which we are now considering is composed of the 

 remains of various structures which cannot be entirely removed 

 by absorption. The areolar tissue between the ultimate follicles 

 of glands, that which surrounds vessels and nerves, and the 

 fibrous tissue of which the so-called capsule of certain organs, 

 liver, kidney, spleen, &c., are all of this nature. No wonder 

 that in man, whose tissues pass through so many stages before 

 he arrives at maturity, and in whom such active changes occur 

 after this period, there should be a large amount of this struc- 

 ture. This particular form of fibrous tissue is absent in the em- 

 bryo at an early period, exists in very small quantity in the 

 young child, and the proportion gradually increases as age 

 advances. In small animals there is less than there is in 

 large animals, and in young animals there is less than in old 

 animals. In creatures of the simplest organization, whose 

 tissues are, so to say, embryonic throughout the whole period 

 of there existence, there is none. In the higher animals 

 whose tissues pass through so many phases before they attain 

 their perfect form, there is a large quantity. It may result 

 from changes occurring in vessels, nerves, and muscles. In 

 various glandular organs which have undergone degeneration, 

 a form of fibrous tissue remains behind. In cirrhosis of the 

 liver. Dr. Beale believes that the fibrous matter which is 

 present results not from the eff'usion and fibrillation of lymph, 

 but is simply the remains of the degenerated capillaries and 

 ducts. In livers in this condition, vessels and shrunken 

 secreting structure, can always be demonstrated in the sub- 

 stance of the so-called fibrous tissue. The same remarks 

 also apply to the kidney in certain cases of disease, and to 

 other glandular organs. 



Attention was then directed to certain fallacious appear- 

 ances which may be produced by the mode of preparing 

 specimeus of healthy tissues, and which may easily be mistaken 

 for fibrous tissue. Dr. Beale has seen the smaller blood- 

 vessels, both arteries and veins, stretched in one part of their 

 course so that the injection was pressed out of the transparent 

 tube, while its continuity with the other parts containing the 

 blue injection was perfectly certain. Had the stretched por- 

 tion alone been examined, Dr. Beale stated that he should 

 have afiirmed most positively that it was a form of areolar 

 tissue, and the nuclei which belonged to the structure form- 

 ing the coats of the vessels might have been considered to be 

 the nuclei of the areolar tissue. 



Delicate nerve fibres when stretched and pressed could 

 not be distinguished from connective tissue. Under the 

 same circumstances, capillary vessels and the membranous 



