40 



ELEMENTARY TISSUES. 



FIG. 10. 



called connective-tissue corpuscles (Fig. 9, c), some of which are 

 prolonged at various points of their outline into small pro- 

 cesses which meet and join others like them proceeding from 

 their neighbors. 



The chief functions of areolar tissue seem to consist in the 

 investment and mechanical support of various parts, and as a 



connecting bond between such 

 structures as may need it. The 

 connective-tissue corpuscles, 

 which, according to Beale, are 

 small branched particles of ger- 

 minal matter or protoplasm, 

 probably minister to the nutri- 

 tion of the texture in which they 

 are seated. 



In various parts of the body, 

 each of the two constituents of 

 areolar tissue which have been 

 just mentioned, may exist sepa- 

 rately, or nearly so. Thus ten- 

 dons, fasciae, and the like more 

 or less inelastic structures, are 

 formed almost exclusively of 

 the white fibrous tissue, arranged 



Elastic fibres from the ligamenta 

 subflava, magnified about 200 diame- 

 ters (Sharpey). 



according to the purpose re- 



quired, either in parallel bun- 

 dles or membranous meshes ; 

 while the yellow elastic fibres 

 are found to make up almost alone such elastic structures as 

 the vocal cords, the ligamenta subflava, &c., and to enter 

 largely into the composition of the bloodvessels, the trachea, 

 the lungs, and many other parts of the body. 



Adipose Tissue. 



In almost all regions of the human body a larger or smaller 

 quantity of adipose or fatty tissue is present ; the chief excep- 

 tions being the subcutaneous tissue of the eyelids, penis and 

 scrotum, the nymphse, and the cavity of the cranium. Adipose 

 tissue is also absent from the substance of many organs, as the 

 lungs, liver, and others. 



Fatty matter, not in the form of a distinct tissue, is also 

 widely present in the body, as the fat of the liver and brain, 

 of the blood and chyle, &c. 



Adipose tissue is almost always found seated in areolar 

 tissue, and forms in its meshes little masses of unequal size 



