A single film of the cellular tissue lifted up and
slightly distended.
24. It is certain that the interspaces or cells of this membrane have no determinate form or size, that they communicate freely with each other, and that this communication extends over the whole body; for if a limb which has been infiltrated be frozen, a thousand small icicles will be formed, assuming the shape of the containing cells, some of which are found to be circular and others cylindrical, and so on. If air or water escape into any particular part of the body, it is often effused over the whole extent of it, and butchers are observed to inflate animals by making a puncture in some part where the cellular tissue is loose, and from this one aperture the air is forced to the most distant parts of the body.
25. Cellular membrane, variously modified and disposed, forms the main bulk of all the other solid parts of the body, constituting their common envelope and bond of union, and filling up all their interstices. It is dense or loose, coarse or fine, according to its situation and office. Wherever it is subject to pressure, it is dense and firm, as in the palm of the hand and the sole of the foot; around the internal organs it is more loose and delicate, and it becomes finer and finer as it divides and subdivides, in order to envelope the soft and tender structures of the body.
A portion of cellular tissue, very highly magnified, showing
the strings of globules of which its ultimate fibres are by
some supposed to consist.
26. According to some who have carefully examined with the microscope its component threads, they consist of minute particles of a globular figure (fig. XVIII.); other microscopical observers regard the cellular threads as coagulated or condensed animal substance, perfectly amorphous (without form).
27. Every part of this tissue is penetrated by arteries, veins, absorbents, and nerves, endowing it with properties truly vital, though in a less degree than any of the other primary tissues; and varied and important as the uses are which it serves in the economy, the most manifest, though certainly not the only ones, are those which depend upon its physical properties of cohesion, flexibility, extensibility, and elasticity.
1, A portion of adipose tissue; 2, minute bags containing
the fat; 3, a cluster of the bags, separated and suspended.