28 PHYSIOLOGY, 



A single film of the cellular tissue lifted up, and slightly distended. 



10. In health, the spaces between these lines are filled with 

 a thin exhalation of a watery nature, which serves to keep 

 the tissue always soft and moist. This is composed of the 

 thinner part of the blood, which is poured out by a process 

 called secretion, but is speedily taken up again by absorption. 

 These two operations exactly balance each other in health, 

 but when from any cause the equilibrium is disturbed, the 

 fluid accumulates, constituting the disease called dropsy. 

 This is often relieved by the operation of tapping, or draw- 

 ing off the water. Cellular membrane is dense or loose, 

 coarse or fine, according to its situation and office. Where 

 it is subject to pressure, as in the palm of the hand and sole 

 of the foot, it is dense and firm ; around the internal organs 

 it is more loose and delicate. Although cellular tissue en- 

 ters into the composition of all the organs, it never loses its 

 own character, nor participates in the functions of the organ, 

 of which it forms a part. Though present in the nerves it 

 does not share in their sensibility, and though it accompa- 

 nies every muscle and every muscular fibre, it nowhere par- 

 takes of the irritability which belongs to these organs. The 

 microscope shows that the minute particles of this tissue are 

 of a globular figure, arranged like strings of pearls, as repre- 

 sented in the following cut. 



