224 



MANUAL OF HISTOLOGY. 



Fig. 217. Transverse section of the tendon of the tail of 

 a young rat. 



concerned in the Operation on the Eye and on the Structure oftJie Eetina and Vitreous 

 Humour, Lond. 1840. 



134. 



The following, parts are further reckoned among the formed connective- 

 tissues. 



2. The tendons. They consist (with a sp. gr. of I'll 7, Krause and 



Fischer) of a solid and but 

 slightly elastic tissue formed 

 of longitudinally arranged 

 cylindrical connective- tissue 

 bundles of a distinctly fibrous 

 nature. These are combined 

 to form stronger cords, and 

 are separated from similar 

 bundles by layers of loose 

 connective -tissue, in which 

 the few blood-vessels of the 

 structure are situated. The 

 tendons contain also longi- 

 tudinal rows of connective- 

 tissue cells. Portions of 

 them may possess cartila- 

 ginous deposits. They are 

 connected with the neighbouring structures by means of ordinary form- 

 less connective- tissue, or the latter 

 may bo condensed around them into 

 a kind of vaginal envelope, the sy- 

 novial sheath of the tendon. We 

 have already considered the mucoid 

 fluid which collects in the latter 

 when speaking of synovia (p. 155). 



The more minute structure of these 

 parts is by no means easy to make 

 out, and has given rise to much con- 

 troversy. 



If we examine a transverse section 

 of an infant's tendon which has been 

 previously dried and subsequently 

 softened, we remark a number of an- 

 gular and jagged figures connected 

 with one another by means of from 

 r , two to four processes, presenting thus 



/, transverse section (spirit of wine pre- t-\ p n i , i 



paration). the appearance of a cellular network 



(fig. 217). 



Side-views of the tendons display under proper treatment longitudinal 

 rows of Henle's or Ranvier's flat cells (fig. 208). These are not, how- 

 ever, rolled up into* tubes, as the French" investigator erroneously sup- 

 posed, but only lightly curved, enclosing the connective-tissue bundles 

 incompletely. 



Turning again to the transverse sections, we may discern in each of 

 the apparently cellular interspaces (Henle) these transversely divided 

 cellular elements, at least faintly. They are, moreover, frequently 

 curved and crumpled. 



Fig. 218. From thctendo Aehillis of a foetal 

 pig 8" in length, A, the fusiform cells 

 and flbrous intermediate matter in profile; 



