CHAPTER III. 



CONNECTIVE TISSUES: CONNECTIVE TISSUE PROPER, ADIPOSE 

 TISSUE OR FAT, CARTILAGE, BONE. 



Following the classification of tissues we have adopted, the 

 next group of tissues to be studied is that known as the con- 

 nective tissue group. This includes : — 



Connective tissue proper. 

 Adipose tissue or fat. 

 Cartilage. 

 Bone. 



These tissues differ considerably in their external character- 

 istics, but are alike in that they all serve to connect and support 

 the other tissues of the body ; they tend to pass imperceptibly 

 the one into the other ; there are many points of similarity 

 between the cells which occur in them, and we may, therefore, 

 reasonably group them together. 



When connective tissue first begins to be formed as a distinc- 

 tive tissue, the cells which are set apart to form it are round in 

 shape and loosely packed together ; later these cells begin to 

 throw out branches and to form a kind of network with open 

 spaces. In these open spaces a semi-fluid substance is deposited 

 which gradually becomes more consistent, and in this substance 

 is developed the particular fibres which are the chief structural 

 characteristics of connective tissue proper. 



Our description of epithelial tissue was briefly this : a skin 

 or membrane formed of cells, which cells may be of a variety of 

 shapes, and be arranged in one or more layers. It is distinctly 

 a tissue of cells with very little of what we call intermediate or 

 intercellular substance lying between the cells. Connective 



13 



