BIOOD-VESSELS IN OMENTUM OF YOUNG RABBITS. 249 



is analogous to what I had previously observed in the mouse 

 foetus and in the inflamed cornea. 



One of the first indications of the distension of the inter- 

 fascicular spaces which precedes the growth of a new 

 capillary is the presence in them of large spindle-cells. 

 The nucleus is very evident in deeply stained carmine 

 preparations, not so much because it is stained as it is 

 because it contrasts with the more deeply stained cell proto- 

 plasm in which it lies. In osmic-acid preparations, stained 

 subsequently in logwood, the spindle-cell protoplasm stains 

 very deeply, obscuring the nucleus. There is accompanying 

 the enlarged spindle an occasional (it may be constant) 

 escape of nuclear bodies, which leaves a corresponding cavity 

 observable in the cell. A similar escape of small rounded 

 bodies with corresponding cavities is observable in the lymph- 

 cells in the neighbourhood. The distended space, enlarged 

 spindles, and vacuoles in one of the spindles, and some of 

 the lymph-cells in a milky patch, which is ripe for a con- 

 nection with the general circulation, is shown in fig. 4. 



I have not traced the further changes in these enlarged 

 spindles. They do not remain in the swollen condition, but 

 whether they shrink to the minute spindle element of the 

 mature tissue or disintegrate and are absorbed is a matter 

 fur further observation. 



Enlarged spindles may precede the distension of the inter- 

 fascicular spaces, and may alone indicate the direction in 

 which a growing capillary will develop. Fig. 5 illustrates 

 this change. At one end of the figure the extent to which 

 a capillary has developed is seen, and on the left a line of 

 enlarged spindle-cells between which and the capillary fine 

 streaks indicated the line by which they would have been 

 subsequently connected. The distance in the preparation 

 between the spindle-cells and the capillary was double what 

 I have been able to show in the figure. The capillary and 

 the spindle cells were stained a deep red, the tissue of the 

 omentum being unstained, and there being no similarly 

 stained spindle-cells except in connection with growing 

 vessels. 



The contents of the inter -fascicular spaces which are 

 enlarging previous to being connected with the blood-vessels 

 diifer from the lymph fluid normally present in the inter- 

 stices in so much as they stain more or less deeply in 

 carmine. It is this property that has led to their being 

 considered cellular. This deep staining in carmine affects 

 the blind ends of the newly formed capillaries as well as the 

 contents of the spaces. Taking this in conjunction witli 



