CHAPTER II. 

 Fibres ; Connecting Tissue. 



4 



THE essential elements of connecting tissue* are 

 fibres, and cells. Its fibres are of two kinds, viz: 

 connective fibres properly RO called, and elastic fibres. 

 Its cells are diminutive in size, generally branched, 

 but sometimes fusiform, and have received from Vir- 

 chowf the name vi plasmatic cells. 



The elementary connective fibre is so exceedingly fibSL ectIve 

 delicate in its proportions that it is impossible to 

 measure its dimensions. Generally collected in fas- 

 ciculi or bundles, they run parallel with each other, 

 their outlines showing a slightly wavy or undulating 

 disposition. In certain organs, tendons, for example, 

 all the fasciculi of connective fibres are parallel 

 to each other. (PL III. fig. I. ; fig. III. 1 , PL IV. fig. 

 I. 1; fig. II. 1.) In the aponeuroses, the skin, the 

 mucous, serous, and synovial membranes, they interlace 

 so as to form a tissue or web, with meshes of varying 

 size. (PL II. fig. IX.) These facts are readily de- 

 monstrated by examining a small fragment or slice 

 from the surface of an aponeurosis or tendon,, care 



* The term connecting tissue is employed throughout the present work 

 to designate that tissue heretofore generally known as cellular, areolar 

 or filamentous tissue. (Ed.) 



t Rodolphe Virchow, Professor of Pathological Anatomy in the Uni- 

 versity of Berlin. (Ed.) 



