AEEOLAE TISSUE. 



39 



threads and fibres are seen to be principally made up of wavy bundles 

 of exquisitely fine transparent fibres (white fibres, fig. 38). The bundles 

 run in different directions, and may branch and intercommunicate with 

 one another; but the individual fibres, although they pass from one 

 bundle to another, never branch or join other fibres. The fibres are 

 cemented together into the bundles by a clear substance containing 

 mucin, and the same clear material forms also the basis or ground- 

 substance of the tissue, in which the bundles themselves course, and in 

 which also the corpuscles of the tissue lie embedded. This ground- 

 substance between the bundles can with difficulty be seen in the fresh 

 tissue on account of its extreme transparency ; but it can be brought to 

 view by staining with nitrate of silver, as in 4. The whole of the 

 tissue is thereby stained of a brown colour, with the exception of the 

 spaces which are occupied by the corpuscles (cell-spaces, fig. 39). 



FIG. 40. ELASTIC FIBRES OF AREOLAR 

 TISSUE. FROM THE SUBCUTANEOUS 

 TISSUE OF THE RABBIT. 



Besides the white fibres of con- 

 nective tissue here described, fibres 

 of a different kind (fig. 40) may be 

 made out in the preparations ; these 

 are the elastic fibres. They are 

 especially well seen after treatment 

 with acetic acid, and after staining 

 with magenta; but they can be 

 detected also in the fresh preparation. They are. characterised by 



NOID TISSUE AT THE BASE OF THE 



BRAIN. (From Toldt.) 



