298 



THE MICKOSCOPE AND ITS REVELATIONS 



closely compacted together, that they should not be distinguishable 

 unless carefully looked for; and there should be no patches of pale unin- 

 jected tissue. Still, although the beauty of a specimen, as a Microscopic 

 object, is much impaired by any deficiency in the filling of its vessels, 

 yet to the Anatomist the disposition of the vessels will be as apparent 

 when they are only filled in part, as it is when they are fully distended; 

 and in thin sections mounted as transparent objects, imperfectly injected 

 capillaries may often be better seen than such as have been completely 

 filled. 



691. A relation may generally be traced between the disposition of 

 the Capillary vessels, and the functions they subserve; but that relation 

 is obviously (so to speak) of a mechanical kind; the arrangement of the 

 vessels not in any way determining the function, but merely administer- 



FIG. 480. 



FIG. 481. 



Capillary network around Fat-cells. 



Capillary network of Muscle. 



ing to it, like the arrangement of water or gas-pipes in a manufactory. 

 Thus in Pig. 480 we see that the capillaries of adipose substance are dis- 

 posed in a network with rounded meshes, so as to distribute the blood 

 among the Fat-cells ( 674); whilst in Fig. 481 we see the meshes 



FIG. 482. 



FIG. 483. 



Distribution of Capillaries in 

 Mucous Membrane. 



Distribution of Capillaries in 

 Skin of Finger. 



enormously elongated, so as to permit the Muscular fibres ( 677) to lie 

 in them. Again, in Fig. 482 we observe the disposition of the Capillaries 

 around the orifices of the follicles of a Mucous membrane; whilst in Fig. 

 483 we see the looped arrangement which exists in the papillary surface 

 of the Skin, and which is subservient to the nutrition of the epidermis 

 and^to the activity of- the sensory nerves ( 682). 



692. In no part of the Circulating apparatus, however, does the dis- 

 position of the capillaries present more points of interest, than it does in 



