38 



GENERAL ANATOMY 



is regarded by most authors as accidental, i. e., produced by the manipulations 

 of the dissector. 



The lymph-corpuscles, as seen in the above figure, are in all essential respects 

 the same in the chyle, the lymph and the blood, where they have been described 

 above as the colorless blood-corpuscles. In the chyle and lymph, however, 

 they vary much in size. In some cases several younger cells have been seen 

 inclosed in the original corpuscles. 



CELLULAR AND FIBROUS TISSUE. 



The Cellular or Areolar Tissue is so called because its meshes are easily dis- 

 tended, and thus separated into cells or spaces which all open freely into each 



other, and are consequently easily blown up with 

 [Fig. 6. air (Fig. 6), or permeated by fluid, when injected 



into any part of the tissue. Such spaces, however, 

 do not exist in the natural condition of the body, 

 but the whole tissue forms one unbroken mem- 

 brane composed of a number of interlacing fibres, 

 variously superimposed. Hence the old term "the 

 cellular membrane" is in many parts of the body 

 more appropriate than its more modern equivalents. 

 The chief use of the cellular tissue is to bind parts 

 together ; while by the laxity of its fibres and the 

 permeability of its areolae it allows them to move 

 on each other, and affords a ready exit for inflam- 

 matory and other effused fluids. It is consequently 

 often denominated connective tissue, and this term is 

 still more appropriate to the fibrous tissue which 

 forms the bond of connection between the intimate 

 elements of solid organs ; in which more restricted 

 sense the term is often used in modern works. 

 The areolar tissue consists essentially of two forms 

 of fibrous tissue, the while and yellow, intermixed 

 in varying proportions, together with a great quan- 

 tity of capillary vessels, nerves and lymphatics, 

 and in most situations it contains fat. The cellular 

 tissue is continuous over the whole body ; so that 

 fluid, and especially air, when injected forcibly into it as from a wound of the 

 lung or bowel may be diffused into the remotest parts. 



The 'White Fibrous Tissue consists of bundles of wavy fibres, interlacing with 

 each other, each composed of minute filaments, orjibrillse, which appear homo- 

 geneous, and measure from 5^^ 



Fig. 7. to sfiJjffTj of an inch in diameter. 



(Fig. 7.) The larger fibres hav 

 no definite size, but are suppos 

 to be solid masses formed by a 

 agglutination as it were of the 

 ultimate fibrillae. Acted upon 

 by acetic acid, the white fibrous 

 tissue swells up into an indis- 

 tinct uniform mass, which gradu- 

 ally becomes indistinguishable; 

 and thus in the areolar tissue the 

 yellow elastic element comes 

 alone into view. 



Yellow Elastic Fibrous Tissue is an aggregation of fibres which are con- 

 siderably larger in size than the fibrilke of the white fibrous element, varying 



Portion of areolar tissue, inflated 

 and dried, showing the general cha- 

 racter of its larger meshes. Each 

 lamina and filament here repre- 

 sented contains numerous smaller 

 ones, matted together by the mode 

 of preparation. (Magnified twenty 

 diameters.)] 



White fibrous tissue. (Iligh power.) 



