132 LECTURE V. 



addition to its blood-vessels, a more delicate system of 

 nutrient channels, precisely similar to that with which 

 we have just become acquainted ; only that, wherever it 

 is specially required, in particular parts a peculiar 

 change takes place in the cells, the place of the simple 

 cell-networks and -fibres being gradually occupied by a 

 more compact structure, which originates in a direct 

 transformation of them, namely, the so-called elastic 

 tissue . 



A few months after I had made known my first obser- 

 vations concerning the eystems of tubes existing in the 

 connective tissues, Bonders published his concerning the 

 transformation of the cells of connective, into the ele- 

 ments of elastic, tissue a discovery which has essen- 

 tially contributed to the completion of the history of 

 connective tissue. If this tissue, namely, be examined 

 at points where it is liable to be much stretched, and 

 vhere consequently it must be endowed with great power 

 af resistance, the elastic fibres will be found arranged 

 and distributed in it in the same way that the cells and 



Fio. 43. 



Fig. 43. Elastic networks and fibres from the subcutaneous tissue of the abdomen 

 of a woman, a, a. Large elastic bodies (cell-bodies), with numerous anastomosing 

 processes. 6, b. Dense elastic bands of fibres, on the border of larger meshes, e, c. 

 Moderately thick fibres, spirally coiled up at the end. d, d. Finer elastic fibres, at 

 with more minute spiral coils. 300 diameters. 



