FIBROUS TISSUE 



1039 



putaminis. The latter may be separated by careful tearing with 

 needles and forceps, after prolonged maceration in water, into several 

 matted lamella? resembling that represented in fig. 771 ; and similar 

 lamellae may be readily obtained from the shell itself by disserving 



FIG, 771. Fibrous membrane 

 from egg-shell. 



FIG. 772. White fibrous tissue 

 from ligament. 



ftta 



away its lime by dilute acid. The simply fibrous structures of the 

 body generally, however, belong to one of two very definite kinds of 

 tissue, the ' white ' and the ' yellow,' whose appearance, composition, 

 and properties are very different. The white 

 fibrous tissue, though sometimes apparently 

 composed of distinct fibres, more commonly 

 presents the aspect of bands, usually of a flat- 

 tened form, and attaining the breadth of 3- ^th 

 of an inch, which are marked by numerous 

 longitudinal streaks, but can seldom be torn up 

 into minute fibres of determinate size. The 

 fibres and bands are occasionally somewhat 

 wavy in their direction ; and they have a pecu- 

 liar tendency to fall into undulations, when it is 

 attempted to tear them apart from each other 

 (fig. 772). This tissue is easily distinguished 

 from the. other by the effect of acetic acid, 

 which swells it up and renders it transparent, 

 at the same time bringing into view certain 

 oval nuclear particles of 'germinal matter,' 

 which are known as 'connective tissue cor- 

 puscles.' These are relatively much larger, and 

 their connections more distinct, in the earlier 

 stages of the formation of this tissue (fig. 773). 

 It is perfectly inelastic ; and we find it in such 

 parts as tendons, ordinary ligaments, fibrous 



capsules, &c. whose function it is to resist tension without yielding 

 to it. It constitutes, also, the organic basis or matrix of bone ; for 

 although the substance which is left when a bone has been macerated 

 sufficiently long in dilute acid for all its mineral components to be 



FIG. 773. Portion of 

 young tendon, show- 

 ing the corpuscles 

 of ' germinal matter,' 

 with their stellate 

 prolongations, inter- 

 posed among its fibres. 



