THE AKEOLAR TISSUE. 293 



fibres of this tissue (i. e. the yellow fibrous) seem to be characterized, 

 and sometimes perhaps undergoing a partial or complete develop- 

 ment into cells. The rate at which the production of fibrous tissue 

 takes place in the manner now described is at first very rapid, well- 

 marked filaments being detectable in the blastema within seven or 

 eight days ; and the tenacity of the bond thus formed between the 

 two ends of a divided tendon is such that in one of Mr. Paget's 

 experiments, within ten days after the operation, the reunited tendo- 

 Achillis of a rabbit (the new tissue being a cord of not more than 

 two lines in its chief diameter), supported a weight of above fifty 

 pounds. The subsequent changes take place more slowly ; but the 

 reparation of divided tendons has been found to be so complete 

 within five months after the operation, that no trace of the sections 

 could be discovered even by microscopic examination." 1 It is, how- 

 ever, to be remembered that non-inflammatory exudations alone can 

 become organized in this way ; they passing at once into tissues, 

 while the inflammatory require an intermediate process of cell-life 

 to accomplish the same result (p. 186). 



Regeneration of Areolar Tissue. 



Areolar tissue is very perfectly regenerated if removed ; but the 

 most completely so in situations where it is most condensed, or ap- 

 proaches more nearly to mere white fibrous tissue. 



Indeed, it is an imperfectly-developed areolar tissue, rather than 

 the original one, which repairs losses of substance in most parts and 

 organs, as the skin, tendons, and even the parenchyma of organs 

 as when parts of the liver or brain, &c., are removed by suppura- 

 tion or by injury. 



Pathological States and New Formations of Areolar Tissue. ' 

 Here we have to distinguish the pathological conditions 



I. Of the fibrous framework of this tissue. 

 II. Of the areolae and their contents. 



I. The fibrous framework is liable to atrophy, in which the blood- 

 vess^ls collapse, together with the framework in which they are dis- 

 tributed. It is quite probable that the hypertrophy, so called, of the 

 areolar tissue is a new formation of the same. 



II. But the most important changes occur in the contents of the 

 areola3. 



1 Paget, "Lectures," &o., ut supra, p. 1070-71. 



