CELLULAR SUBSTANCE. 319 



ceded, as Ruysch supposes, that it is formed exclusively of 

 blood vessels. Some anatomists, indeed, as Haller and Pro- 

 chaska, allow that though blood vessels ramify through it, yet 

 they are not spent upon it, or do not form a part of its organi- 

 zation. The distinction is rather to subtle, to be readily ad- 

 mitted, and seems, moreover, to be refuted by the continued 

 exhalation and absorption which is going on within. It does 

 not appear that nerves are spent upon the cellular substance, 

 though they pass abundantly through it to their respective 

 organs. 



It is probable that the granulations on which injured parts of 

 the body depend for their restoration, arise from this cellular 

 substance. The late Professor Wistar attended a patient for 

 compound fracture of the leg, with a large wound, which was 

 subsequently covered with luxuriant granulations. The limb 

 was suddenly attacked with an oedematous swelling, which ex- 

 tended itself to the sore, and caused its granulations to tumefy, 

 so that they pitted upon pressure precisely like other parts.* 



The most generally received opinion of anatomists,! in re- 

 gard to the arrangement of cellular tissue is, that it results from 

 the assemblage of a multitude of lamella, and of fine soft fila- 

 ments, which, being variously interwoven, produce a series of 

 cells all communicating one with another, but varying in their 

 shape and size; so that the whole cellular substance may be 

 considered to represent a single cavity subdivided into an infini- 

 tude of smaller ones. To this it is objected, f that when this 

 tissue is accurately examined, it appears rather as a homoge- 

 neous, viscid, and only partially solidified substance; particular- 

 ly in the inferior orders of animals, and in the embryo state of 

 the more exalted, where it has still to admit the deposite or for- 

 mation of the several organs. That the same is manifested at 

 any period of life; for neither with the naked or assisted eye 

 does it assume any other appearance. That its laminated and 

 fibrous condition, when such does appear, is owing to its gluti- 

 nous or glue-like consistence, which causes it to assume a fac- 



* System of Anat. vol. i. p. 388, 2d edition. 

 t Haller, Beclard, JBichat, Wm. Hunter, &c. 



t Bordeu, Recherches sur le Tissu Muqueux et Celluleux. Paris, 1790. J. 

 F, Meckel, Manuel D'Anat. vol. i. p. 105. 



