OP THE CELLULAR TISSUE. 123 



seen in wounds, adhesions, &c. It possesses a power of con- 

 traction depending in part, upon its elasticity and partly upon 

 its irritability. This latter quality is here called, fibrillary, 

 staminal, tonic contractility: it is manifested by the motions 

 of the liquid this tissue generally or accidentally contains, 

 and by the general or local tightening it experiences in vari- 

 ous cases; it is not very evident that the nervous force influ- 

 ences or determines its contractions. It has no sensibility 

 except in a state of inflammation. 



150. The uses and functions of the cellular tissue are very 

 important; it is it that determines the form of all the parts. It 

 is the only lien that unites them with each other: upon its 

 cohesion depends that of all the other tissue. By its elasticity, 

 it facilitates the movements and replaces the organs in the state 

 they were in previous to being displaced, when these move- 

 ments have ceased : thus <so do these latter perform their 

 functions the more easily in proportion as the cellular tissue 

 is perfect. 



It is the seat of a perspiratory secretion which on account 

 of its extent is very abundant. Does the liquid there given 

 out by the extreme vessels experience a sort of circulation or 

 movement of translation? Of this we are totally ignorant. 

 It is only in cases of morbid accumulation, that we see the 

 infiltrated liquid change its place in obedience to weight and 

 pressure, &c. It has been supposed, but without any solid 

 reason, that this liquid is in a state of continual agitation, of 

 which the diaphragm, by its alternate motions upwards and 

 downwards, is the principal cause; that there are currents in 

 various directions and that, for example, it is the secret way 

 by which liquids pass from the stomach to the bladder, a sup- 

 position disproved by all exact observations; that it is the chan- 

 nel of metastasis, &c. However it may be, the liquid is after- 

 wards taken back again by the vessels, so that this tissue is 

 intermediate between perspiration and resorption. The tonic 

 contraction of the cellular tissue is the agent that propels the 

 serum of this tissue into the vessels. 



The cellular tissue is in fact the essential organ of absorp- 

 tion ; it forms the mucous body of the skin, the spongy sub- 



