322 INTEGUMENTS. 



Anatomists who lived at a period much less illuminated than 

 the present on the subject of the elementary tissues of the body, 

 seem to have seized upon the idea of the universal inflection of 

 cellular substance over the surfaces, and through the texture 

 of the several organs. Mangetus,* without pretending to ori- 

 ginality, but in alluding freely to the observations of others, 

 says, " Membrana adiposa, est expansio cellulosa, quae totum 

 corporis habitum, paucissimis, iisque minimis partibus exceptis, 

 circumambit; etin qua materia albicans unctuosa, sensu expers, 

 ad partes fovendas ac lubricandas colligitur. Hsec membrana 

 cellulosa seu pinguedinosa, non tantum in exterioribus corporis 

 reperitur; sed interius in intestinis, mesenterio, aliisque prope 

 omnibus partibus, non exceptis etiam vasis sanguiferis, ut suo 

 loco videbirnus, observatur." And in describing the aponeuro- 

 tic covering of the body and of the limbs, which in his day 

 was called Membrana Musculosa, from some false notions of 

 its nature, he adds, " Dicitur oriri a dorsi vertebris, quia scili- 

 cet earum spinis firmiter adhaeret, inibique multo quam alibi 

 usquam robustior conspicilur. Usus est, musculos universim 

 in sua sede firmare, iisque quasi thecam praestare, in qua ut 

 supra innuimus laxius sibi cohaerente, lubrice moveri queant." 

 The cellular investments of the muscles the same author calls 

 Membrana Musculi Propria, and he speaks of their penetrating 

 between the fasciculi of muscles, and most evidently those of 

 the glutaeus maximus and deltoides. 



The Internal Cellular Membrane (Textus Cellularis Stipatus) 

 presents itself under different arrangements according to the 

 organ or part whose interstices it penetrates. As it forms in 

 the muscles an envelope for each fasciculus and fibre, if the 

 latter by any art could be withdrawn, it would represent a 

 congeries of fine parallel tubes. In the case of glandular bo- 

 dies the internal cellular membrane imitates the shape of their 

 lobe-s, lobules, and acini or small graniform masses, and may, 

 therefore, be compared to a sponge. In the hollow viscera, as 

 the stomach and bladder, it unites their successive laminae to 

 one another. In the .ligaments, even where the fibrous struc- 

 ture is perfectly evolved, the fibres are united by cellular tissue 



* Theatrum Anatomicum, Geneva, 1716, vol. i. Ch. Hi. 



