1210 
speaking, an inner layer of vessel-conducting connective tissue is 
the essential factor for the fasciae and „ot the polished fibrous tissue, 
which for the knife and for the eye is their characteristic aspect. 
This is analogized by the mesentery, in which the functional 
essence is not constituted by the peritoneal epithelium lining it, but 
in reality by the vessels contained in its connective tissuelike sub- 
stvate'). The thought underlying the view set forth here, is by no 
means new. It is OMBREDANNE's. This author has worked it out in 
his thesis (Paris 1900), particularly for the abdomen and the pelvis, 
but he also surmises its validity for the whole body : 
“Il existe’, OMBREDANNE says, “entre le peritoine de l’abdomen et 
du bassin une lame vasculaire, contenant les vaisseaux dans son 
épaisseur, émettant une lame secondaire, quand l’artere émet une 
série de branches dans un autre plan, que son plan de ramfication 
principal émettant une gaine vasculaire periviscerale quand l'artêre 
émet un bouquet de branches allant envelloper un organe, présen- 
tant des renforcements du côté, d'où viennent les pressions, et 
capable de se souder au niveau de ses plicatures”’. 
We see then that according to his description the fascia pelvis is 
such a “lame vasculaire” differentiated in the subperitoneal connec- 
tive tissue, which “lame” is in the first instance attached to the 
large vessels lying against the pelvic wall, but from which “lame” 
determined by the outgoing ramifications, a number of lateral 
septa are emanating, which, in a frontal arrangement, divide the 
subperitoneal space into a number of partitions *) or leave the pelvis 
along with the ontgoing vessels (vv glutaea, pudenda) and thus may 
assume the character of intermuscular septa. There is, according to 
OMBREDANNE, a Close relationship between vessels and connective 
tissue, which invariably reveals itself in a condensation of the latter, 
in continuous connection with the vascular adventitia®). Fundamen- 
tally it is quite immaterial whether here, as in the case alluded to 
in the outset, pressure or distension on the part of the environing 
tissue influences the morphosis of the whole, or whether it does not. 
In the region of the pelvic fasciae examined by OMBRRDANNR this 
manifests itself e.g. by the fact that a rather smooth plane of con- 
1) This parallel between fascia and mesentery, which also OMBREDANNE has 
drawn, might still be extended, if, as is most likely, every fascia has u super- 
ficial lining of endothelium. 
2) A clear and concise compendium of it may be found in Trsrur-JAcoB. 
Tome |I, p. 391-398. 
5) In a section through the umbilical cord the more precise arrangement of 
the connective tissue elements round the vessels is distinctly noticeable. 
