AREOLAR TISSUE. 



37 



Fig. 10.* 



the yellow fibres divide at their ends and anastomose with 

 each other by means of the branches. Among the fibrous 

 parts of areolar or connective tissue are little nuclear 

 bodies of various shapes, called connective-tissue corpuscles 

 (fig. 9, c.), some of which are prolonged at various points 

 of their outline into small processes which meet and join 

 others like them proceeding from their neighbours. 



The chief functions of areolar tissue seem to consist in 

 the investment and mechanical support of various parts, 

 and as a connecting bond between such structures as may 

 need it. The connective-tissue corpuscles, which, accord- 

 ing to Beale, are small branched particles of germinal 

 matter or protoplasm, probably minister to the nutrition of 

 the texture in which they are seated. 



In various parts of the body, 

 each of the two constituents of 

 areolar tissue which have been 

 just mentioned, may exist sepa- 

 rately, or nearly so. Thus ten- 

 dons, fascia}, and the like more 

 or less inelastic structures, are 

 formed almost exclusively of the 

 white fibrous tissue, arranged ac- 

 cording to the purpose required, 

 either in parallel bundles or 

 membraneous meshes ; while the 

 yellow elastic fibres are found to 

 make up almost alone such elas- 

 tic structures as the vocal cords, 

 the ligamenta subflava, etc., and 

 to enter largely into the composition of the blood-vessels, 

 the trachea, the lungs, and many other parts of the body. 



* Fig. 10. Elastic fibres from the ligamenta subflava, magnified 

 about 200 diameters (Sharpey). 



