32 OP LIFE. 



2. Properties of Texture. 



Q. What are these? 



Jl. They are extensibility and contractility of tissue. 



Q. Can you offer some examples of extensibility of 

 texture? 



*#. The walls of the abdomen extended by tumours, 

 serous infiltrations, or pregnancy ; the extension of the 

 tunica vaginalis in dropsy; that of a part filled with ab- 

 scess. All this is extensibility of texture, a property in- 

 dependent of life. 



Q. On what do these textural properties depend? 



#. They depend on the arrangement of the organic 

 fibres of parts; where these fibres are loose, there is much 

 extensibility, as in the muscles, and vice versa. 



Q. What organs are most extensible? 



Jt. The muscles, skin, and cellular tissue; those least 

 v so, are the bones, cartilages, tendons, nails, &c. 



Q. How can you exemplify contractility of texture? 



#. After distending causes have been removed, you 

 see parts return to their natural state. It is exhibited in 

 the contraction of the abdominal parietes after delivery, 

 or on the evacuation of peritoneal dropsy. It appears 

 again when the stomach or bowels, after great distention 

 with wind, resume their wonted dimensions. 



Q. Is this contractility of texture greater in the dead or 

 living parts? 



*#. Although these properties of texture arc indepen- 

 dent of life, yet this imparts to them additional force. 



Q. Present an example of a part possessing all the va- 

 rious forms of contractility. 



