CHAP. 111.] CONNECTIVE TISSUE PKOPER. 15 



nerves, the blood-vessels, and other parts. It both connects 

 and insulates entire organs, and, in addition, performs the same 

 office for the finer parts of which these organs are made up. It 

 is thus one of the most general and most extensively distributed 

 of the tissues. It is, moreover, continuous throughout the body, 

 and from one region it may be traced without interruption into 

 any other, however distanj, a fact not without interest in prac- 

 tical medicine, seeing that in this way air, water, and other 

 fluids, effused into the areolar tissue ma}^ spread far from the 

 spot where they were first introduced or deposited. 



Seen with the naked eye, areolar tissue appears to be com- 

 posed of a multitude of fine threads and films crossing irregu- 

 larly in every imaginable direction, leaving open spaces or 

 areolce between them. Viewed with the microscope, these 

 threads and films are seen to be principally made up of wavy 

 bundles of exquisitely fine, transparent, white fibres, and these 

 bundles intersect in all directions. Mixed with the white 

 fibres are a certain number of elastic fibres, which do not form 

 bundles, and have a straight instead of a wavy outline. The 

 cells of the tissue, of which there 



are several varieties, lie in the | ,, w ,, 



spaces between the bundles of | 



fibres. 



On comparing the areolar tissue 

 of different parts, it is observed in 

 some to be more loose and open in 

 texture ; in others, more close and jj 

 dense, according as.free movement, fi 



or firm connection between parts is I >,j 



to be provided for. / 



Fibrous tissue. Fibrous tissue is / 

 intimately allied in structure to 

 the areolar tissue, but the bundles / 

 of white fibres cohere very closely, (/' "' (] 



and instead of interlacing in every FIG. 11. FIBROUS TISSUE, FROM 



direction run for the most part in THE LONGITUDINAL SECTION OF A 



TENDON. (After Gegenbauer.) 



only one or two directions, and thus 



confer a distinctly fibrous aspect on the parts which they com- 

 pose. This fibrous tissue is met with in the form of ligaments, 

 connecting the bones together at the joints, and in the form of 



