ADIPOSE TISSUE 65 



highly elastic. Under the microscope the fibers are colorless, but 

 when aggregated, as in a ligament, the mass is yellow. 



Procure a small piece of the ligamentum nuchce of the ox, and 

 tease it on the slide after it has been macerated in acetic acid f OIL 

 a few moments. The acid softens the fibrous connective tissue and 

 facilitates the teasing process. 



The individual fibers having been isolated, they appear as in 

 Fig. 38. When broken, they curl upon themselves, like threads of 

 India rubber. 



This tissue is variously disposed throughout the body where 

 great strength with elasticity becomes necessary. The large 

 arteries are abundantly supplied with elastic fiber, arranged in 

 plates, in alternation with muscle. As a network, it is mixed with 

 connective tissue in the skin, and in membranes generally. It con- 

 . tributes elasticity to cartilage where the fibers form an intricate 

 network. 



Ligaments are composed largely of yellow elastic tissue. Fig. 

 39 is drawn from a portion of a stained transverse section of part 

 of the II (j amenta tsttbflava. 



A strong sheath of fibrous tissue is thrown around the whole 

 ligament, a portion of which is seen at S. This sheath sends pro- 

 longations, T, T, into the structure, dividing it into irregular 

 bundles, which support nutrient vessels. The elastic fibers seen in 

 transverse section, as at E, E, are observed strongly bound together 

 with fibrous tissue, which penetrates the smaller fasciculi, dividing 

 them into the ultimate fibrillce. 



ADIPOSE TISSUE 



Adipose or fat tissue is a modification of and development from 

 ordinary connective tissue. 



It originates in certain contiguous connective tissue corpuscles 

 becoming filled with minute fat -globules. These ultimately coa- 

 lesce and form single large globules, which bulge out the cell -bodies 

 until they become spheroids; the nuclei at the same time are dis- 

 placed to the periphery. An aggregation of such cells forms a 

 lobule of adipose tissue. The cells are often so closely packed as 

 to assume a polyhedral form. From malnutrition, this fat may be 

 absorbed, ordinary connective tissue remaining. 



You will bear in mind the fact that whenever fat exists in a 

 condition of minute subdivision, the particles always assume the 



