102 INCREASE OF FIBROUS CONNECTIVE IN OLD AGE. 



hand, when the textm-es have acquired considerable 

 firmness, and possess resisting power of their own, 

 this " supporting " connective tissue exists in very 

 large quantity. 



149. Increase of flljrous connective tissue in old age 

 and in disease. — The intervening connective, instead, 

 of being of advantage to the special elements of the 

 tissue, actually interferes with their action, and its 

 accumulation corresponds with the deterioration of 

 the organ in which it takes place. Old textures differ 

 from young textures of the same kind in the greater 

 proportion of connective tissue present, and this results 

 from changes occurring in the normal sti'ucture. In 

 many painful examples' of chronic disease of im- 

 portant organs which come under the notice of the 

 physician, the premature decay at a time when all 

 parts of the body ought to be still in an active, 

 vigorous state, is associated with abundance of con- 

 nective, this being, in fact, the debris of the more 

 important texture which has wasted. 



150. Mode of increase of fibrous connective in 

 muscles and nerves. — It is easy to understand how 

 the connective tissue results during the development 

 of textures in which the permanent type of structure 

 is not manifested until several temporary textures ■ 

 have occupied the place of that which is destined at 

 last to remain. These temporary textures gradually 

 disappear, leaving a small quantity of what we call 

 fibrous connective, and this collects, in most instances, 

 at the. outer part, because the formation of the new 

 tissue takes place in a direction from within outwards. 

 In studying the development of tissues, which consist 

 of collections or bundles of fibres as, for example, 

 muscular -fibres, this point may be demonstrated very 

 conclusively. The new fibres originate in the centre, 

 and great differences in character between the outer- 

 most fibres and those situated further inward, will 

 always be observed. From the first the masses of 



