

CONNECTIVE TISSUE. 



161 



In serous membranes, especially in the omentum, the delicate 

 bundles of fibrous connective tissue are arranged in the shape of 

 a reticulum, the meshes of which are very large, constituting 

 what has been termed " areolar connective tissue " (Hassal). 



The fibrillae, composing delicate bundles, freely interlace in 

 the papillary layer of the derma of the skin, and in the mucous 

 membranes; while in the subcutaneous tissue the bundles are 

 coarser and their interstices contain the fat-lobules. Similar 

 features are observed in the loose connective tissue around the 

 eyeball and in the female breast. 



The delicate bundles of the pia mater are also interlaced, and 

 generally enter the gray cortex of the brain and the white cortex 



FIG. 56. DELICATE FIBROUS CONNECTIVE TISSUE FROM THE BORDER 

 OF THE THYROID CARTILAGE OF A YOUNG MAN. 



C, cartilage ; B, V, blood-vessels in transverse and oblique section ; O, dense fibrous con- 

 nective tissue. Magnified 800 diameters. 



of the spinal cord in radiating directions. They are freely sup- 

 plied with blood-vessels in their interstices, and upon entering 

 the nervous tissue gradually divide, and their fibers form a delicate 

 reticulum which supports the nerve-formations, the " neuroglia " 

 of Virchow. 



In muscle, a delicate loose connective tissue is found around 

 the muscle-fibers and their bundles (perimysium internum and 

 11 



