316 SEROUS MEMBRANES. 



primarily in a horizontal plane. It is only at a few points (at 

 dd, in fig. 104) that tlie afferent and efferent parent-vessels make 

 their way up through the serous layer, while in detached shreds 

 of the membrane, examined from above, a vascular network of 

 exceeding beauty may be observed (fig. 105). 



Fig. 105. 



0^3 *J -^S^ 



Vessels in a false membrane seven days old. ~^. {Mcli.) 



In the primary mode of adhesion, that which we are now 

 considering, each of the serous surfaces generates its own vascu- 

 lar network. Thus the transverse section delineated in fig. 104 

 shows two networks in one and the same false membrane, 

 separated from each other by a layer of tissue which is not yet 

 vascularised. At a later period however, this becomes modified. 

 For if the fusion of the opposed surfaces is not interfered with, 

 the intermediate layer of connective tissue is gradually furnished 

 with vessels, and the vascular networks ultimately unite by in- 

 numerable anastomoses. 



So far we have traced the development of a layer of con- 

 nective tissue between the serous surfaces, thin indeed, but very 

 richly supplied with vessels ; and this without any active co- 

 operation on the part of the fibrinous element of the exudation, 

 and without the occurrence of any notable proliferation in the 

 subepithelial layer of connective tissue. We can easily lay 

 hold of this false membrane, and strip it from the serous surfaces 

 on which it lies. The ease with which this can be done, sponta- 

 neously reminds us of the ease with which the epidermis can 

 occasionally be stripped from the inflamed cutis — and recals the 

 fact, that up to this time the only real connexion between the 



