CONNECTIVE TISSUE 57 



course is characteristically wavy or undulating. Though the individual 

 fibers rarely branch, the fiber bundles frequently anastomose with one an- 

 other. The white fibers are readily stained with most 'acid' dyes, and 

 possess a special affinity for acid fuchsin. Chemically they consist of the 

 albuminoid collagen, which on boiling in water yields gelatin, and is 

 readily dissolved by boiling in dilute acids or alkalies. Collagen "fibers 

 are digested by artificial gastric juice in five or ten minutes but are 



, 



FIG. 64. DENSE FIBROUS TISSUE FROM THE TENDON OF ONE OF THE OCULAR 



MUSCLES OF A CHILD. 



Hematein and eosin. X 550. 



scarcely altered after several hours when acted upon by solutions of pan- 

 creatin. After boiling, however, white fibers are readily digested by pan- 

 creatin. In dilute acids they swell and become transparent. 



The elastic fibers of areolar tissue, in comparison with the collagenous 

 fibers, are few in number. They occur as isolated fibers never in bundles 

 which frequently branch and anastomose, forming in this way a very 

 fine net with wide meshes, within which are the interlacing bundles of 

 white fibers. The elastic fibers exist under a certain tension during life, 

 so that their course under favorable conditions is invariably straight. 

 When areolar tissue is removed from the body this tension is frequently 

 relieved and the elastic fibers then curl up, especially at their free ends. 



