, 14 AREOLAR TISSUE. 



ditioii in which they immediately attract attention in the 

 investigation of that tissue in the foetus. We shall in the next 

 place consider the earlier, and then the subsequent stages of 

 their development. In addition to the corpuscles before men- 

 tioned, others may be seen in very young areolar tissue, which 

 are not elongated into fibres, but are more or less round. They 

 are granuloasand contain a nucleus with nucleoli, and as they 

 present all the stages of transition up to those cells which are 

 prolonged into fibres, we must regard them as being the un- 

 developed fibre-cells. Various forms of them are delineated 

 in pi. Ill, fig. 6. I will not assert that all round cells in 

 foetal areolar tissue are young fibre-cells; for we shall 

 presently become acquainted with some which are not. It 

 is only after the commencement of the process of acumina- 

 tion that the young fibre-cells can be distinguished from these; 

 in the earliest state, when they are as yet quite round, almost 

 all cells are alike. It is difficult to determine positively 

 whether or not these cells are formed around a previously 

 existing nucleus ; probably, however, such is the case, as there 

 are no cells to be seen without nuclei, although there are many 

 nuclei observed without investing cells. 



The following, then, are the results of our investigation into 

 the progress of development of areolar tissue, in so far as 

 we have as yet pursued it. In the first place, small round 

 cells are formed (probably around a previously existing 

 nucleus), in the structureless jelly-like cytoblastema of the 

 tissue. The cells, furnished with the characteristic nucleus, 

 become acuminated in two opposite directions, and these acumi- 

 nations elongate into fibres, that sometimes give off branches, 

 and at length split into fasciculi of extremely minute fibres, 

 which, in the early stage, cannot be distinctly perceived to be 

 insulated. As development proceeds, the splitting of the two prin- 

 cipal fibres, issuing from the body of the cell into a bundle of 

 more minute fibres, continually advances nearer towards the cell, 

 so that, at a later period, a fasciculus of fibres issues immediately 

 from the body. of the cell (see pi. Ill, fig. 7.) At a subsequent 

 period, this process of splitting reaches as far as the nucleus, 

 and at length goes quite through the body of the cell, 

 and the nucleus then lies merely upon a fasciculus of 

 fibres. At the same time the fibres in the progress of de- 



