CONNECTIVE TISSUE CORPUSCLES. 71 



fibrils which compose the bundles have become in- 

 distinct, whilst the bundles are much swollen, except, 

 it may be, at intervals here and there. At the same 

 time certain other fibres, almost equally fine but 

 more sharply defined than the white fibrils, and 

 always running singly, never in bundles, come into 

 view. These are the elastic fibres. If one of them 

 be followed for a short distance, it will probably be 

 seen that it sooner or later gives off a branch which 

 unites it with a neighboring fibre,whereas the white 

 fibrils never show any disposition to branch or unite 

 with one another, but those in each bundle maintain 

 from end to end a perfectly parallel course. The 

 elastic nature of the filaments which are brought 

 into view by acetic acid is shown, in such a prepara- 

 tion as we are describing, by the fact that wherever 

 in the process of teasing the tissue they have become 

 broken across, the fibres have, by the recoil from the 

 stretching to which they were submitted before the 

 rupture occurred, been thrown into bold curves, es- 

 pecially marked near the broken extremities, which 

 are often recurved. That this curved or coiled ap- 

 pearance of the elastic fibres, although highly char- 

 acteristic, and always observable when the tissue is 

 thus prepared, is, however, not a natural one, is 

 shown by the fact that, as will immediately be de- 

 scribed, when precautions are taken to preserve as 

 much as possible the normal arrangement of the 

 tissue elements, the elastic fibres are seen to pursue 

 a rectilinear course. 



Preparation 3. The Corpuscles of the Areolar 

 Tissue. To demonstrate the cells or connective 

 tissue corpuscles the preparation is made more 

 methodically. A film as thin as possible must be 

 obtained for observation, so as to avoid the necessity 

 of tearing the tissue. Such films are naturally pre- 

 sent in the areolar tissue of most parts, and may be 

 seen when the organs which it connects are gently 

 drawn asunder from one another, as, for instance, 

 when the skin is raised and reflected from the sub- 



