AREOLAR TISSUE. 



39 



have described it, is met with in some form or other in every 

 region of the body; the areolar tissue of one district being, 

 directly or indirectly, continuous with that of all others. In 

 most parts of the body this structure contains fat, but the 

 quantity of the latter is very variable, and in some few re- 

 gions it is absent altogether (p. 40). Probably no nerves are 

 distributed to areolar tissue itself, although they pass through 

 it to other structures ; and although bloodvessels are supplied 

 to it, yet they are sparing in quantity, if we except those des- 

 tined for the fat which is held in its meshes. 



Under the microscope areolar tissue seems composed of a 

 meshwork of fine fibres of two kinds. The first, which makes 

 up the greater part of the tissue, is formed of very fine white 

 structureless fibres, arranged closely in bands and bundles, of 

 wavelike appearance when not stretched out, and crossing 

 and intersecting in all directions (Fig, 8). The second kind, 

 or the yellow elastic fibre (Fig, 10), has a much sharper and 



FIG. 9. 



Magnified view of areolar tissues (from different parts) treated with acetic acid. 

 The white filaments are no longer seen, and the yellow or elastic fibres with the 

 nuclei come into view. At c, elastic fibres wind round a bundle of white fibres, 

 which, by the effect of the acid, is swollen out between the turns. Some connective- 

 tissue corpuscles are indistinctly represented in c (Sharpey). 



darker outline, and is not arranged in bundles, but intimately 

 mingled with the first variety, as more or less separate and 

 well-defined fibres, which twist among and around the bundles 

 of white filaments (Fig. 9). Sometimes the yellow fibres 

 divide at their ends and anastomose with each other by 

 means of the branches. Among the fibrous parts of areolar 

 or connective-tissue are little nuclear bodies of various shapes, 



