ADIPOSE TISSUE. 47 



Adipose Tissue. 



In almost all regions of the human body a larger or 

 smaller quantity of adipose or fatty tissue is present ; the 

 chief exceptions being the subcutaneous tissue of the eye- 

 lids, penis and scrotum, the nymphee 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, etc. 



Adipose tissue is almost always found seated in areolar 

 tissue, and forms in its meshes little masses of unequal 

 size and irregular shape, to which the term, lobules, is 

 commonly applied. Under the microscope it is found to 



Fig. n* 



consist essentially of little vesicles or cells about ^-g-o-th or 

 s^th of an inch in diameter, each composed of a struc- 

 tureless and colourless membrane or bag, filled with fatty 

 matter which is liquid during life, but in part solidified 

 after death. A nucleus is always present in some part or 

 other of the cell-wall ; but in the ordinary condition of the 



* Fig. ii. A small cluster of fat-cells; magnified 150 diameters 

 (Sharpey). 



