FAT- CELL 8. Ill 



lads of sixteen or seventeen row and take other exercise in 

 plenty is one thing, and a good one; but to allow them to 

 undergo the severe and prolonged strain of training for 

 and rowing a race is quite another, and not devoid of 

 risk. 



Adipose Tissue. Fatty substances of several kinds ex- 

 ist in considerable quantity in the Human Body in health, 

 some as minute droplets floating in the bodily liquids or 

 imbedded in various cells, but most in special cells, nearly 

 filled with fat, and collected into masses with supporting 

 and nutritive parts, to form adipose tissue. In fact al- 

 most in every spot where the widely distributed areo- 

 lar tissue is found, there is adipose tissue in greater or 

 less proportion along with it. Considerable quantities ex- 

 ist for example in the subcutaneous areolar tissue, espe- 

 cially in the female sex, giving the figure of the woman its 

 general graceful roundness of contour when compared with 

 that of the male. Large quantities commonly lie in the 

 abdominal cavity around the kidneys; in the eye-sockets, 

 forming a pad for the eyeballs; in 

 the marrow of bones; around the 

 joints, and so" on. 



Examined with the microscope 

 (Fig. 46) adipose tissue is found to 

 consist of small vesicles from 0.2 

 mm. to 0.09 mm. ( T J0- to jl^ inch) 

 in diameter, clustered together into 

 little masses and bound to one another 

 by connective tissue and blood-ves- FIG at ce]lg 



sels which intertwine around them; supporting connective tis- 

 in this way the little angular masses 



which are seen in beef suet are formed, each mass be- 

 ing separated by a somewhat coarser partition of areo- 

 lar tissue from its neighbors. The individual fat-cells are 

 round or oval except when closely packed, when they 

 become polygonal. Each consists of a delicate enve- 

 lope containing oily matter, which in life is liquid 

 at the temperature of the Body. Besides the oily mat- 

 ter, a nucleus is commonly present in each fat-cell; 



