SIMPLE FIBROUS CONNECTIVE. 101 



is repaired, fihrin is first formed from, the minute bio- 

 plasts and white blood corpuscles. The bioplasm em- 

 bedded in the meshes of this newly formed web of tem- 

 porary tissue then grows and multiplies, and at length 

 masses are formed from which a firmer and more lasting 

 fibrous tissue results. This is deposited in definite 

 layers, and in a definite direction, while the old tem- 

 porary fibrin having served its purpose is slowly 

 absorbed. The changes referred to have been care- 

 fully studied in the fibrin deposited from the blood in 

 the repair of a wounded artery. The characters of 

 the coagulum first formed, and the changes which 

 take place in it afterwards, have been represented in 

 the plates appended to the memoir referred to, " On 

 the repair of Arteries and Veins after Injury," by 

 Henry Lee aud Lionel S. Beale. Medico Chirargical 

 Transactions. Vol. L. 



148. Simple ilbroiis ooiinective. — This very delicate 

 texture, the simplest of all the tissues, is very widely 

 distributed in man and the higher animals. Indeed 

 there is scarcely a part of the body in which traces of 

 it cannot be discerned. From the circumstance of 

 its existing between the more important structural 

 elements of higher tissues, and connecting them to 

 one another, as well as to other tissues, it has been 

 termed connective tissue. It has been supposed that 

 this texture was designed to give strength aud -support 

 to more important tissues, but it must be obvious to 

 any one who examines any of the organs in question, 

 that the various structural elements afford the most 

 efficient support to one another, and are not in need 

 of a special supporting frame- work of any kind. It is 

 indeed very remarkable that such a view should have 

 been entertained, as it is well known that at the time 

 when the more elaborate tissue elements are softest, 

 and therefore most in need of support, that is at an 

 early period of therr development, scarcely a trace of 

 this connective is to be found, while, on the other 



