The exterior of the cavity of the pelvis has also much cellular texture, less however behind than upon the sides, but in front around the genital organs of man as well as woman, there are large masses, particularly upon the great labia and the dartos.
III. Of the cellular system of the extremities.
In the superior and inferior extremities, the quantity of cellular texture decreases from the superior to the inferior part. Around the two superior articulations, it is very abundant. The hollow of the axilla, in which the head of the humerus is situated, and which is spacious, is almost entirely filled with it. The groin has also considerable, though less than the axilla. The arm and the thigh have between their muscles large interstices that are cellular. At the elbow there is a smaller proportion than at the ham, whose deep cavity has a considerable quantity; an arrangement that is consequently the reverse of that of the axilla compared with that of the groin.
In the fore arm and leg, the muscles approach each other in a sensible manner; their cellular layers are much more compact, the whole cellular system is less abundant.
Towards the inferior part of these two portions of the limbs, where almost every thing on the hand and foot are tendinous and fibrous, the cellular texture diminishes still more, and becomes in proportion to the motions, hardly sensible. However, the foot, especially on the sole, contains much more than the palm of the hand, where we see but little.
This successive decrease of the cellular texture of the limbs is adapted to the uses of their different parts. In fact the extent of motion that exists above, requires in the muscles a laxity which they borrow from the quantity of cellular texture that surrounds them. Below, the multiplicity and at the same time the limited extent of the motions of the hand and the foot, of the hand especially which is destined to adapt itself to the form of external bodies, require in the organs of these two parts a close juxta-position, for which they are indebted to the small quantity of cellular texture that exists there.
ARTICLE THIRD.
OF THE FORMS OF THE CELLULAR SYSTEM, AND THE FLUIDS IT CONTAINS.
I. Of the cells.
The general conformation of the cellular texture is not the same every where. The interstices or cells between the different layers, are more or less wide; their size is remarkable upon the eyelids and the scrotum, and in general where there is no fat, or where it is in small quantity. Moreover the capacity of the cells is extremely variable; nothing definite can be determined upon this point, as they are capable of contraction and expansion. When fat and serum fill them, they are double, triple or even quadruple what they are when they are empty. It is the variation in the size of the cells of the system of which we speak, which constitutes all the difference of the general size of the body in corpulency or emaciation; in each state the size of every nervous, tendinous fibre, &c. remains nearly the same, and the cellular system only varies. There is the same variety in leucophlegmasia compared with the ordinary state of the body.