Page:Microscopicial researchers - Theodor Schwann - English Translation - 1947.pdf/149

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FIBROUS TISSUE.
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ments of the newly-forming cylindrical fibres of the areolar tissue composing the proper false membranes, or substance of the cicatrix.” Thus Froriep had already observed the gene- ration of fibres, resembling those of areolar tissue, by the elon- gation of corpuscles; what he here calls fibrine globules, are, no doubt, the nucleated fibre-cells becoming elongated into fibres. Henle examined the exudation by which wounds that heal by the first intention are closed, and found, that, in this also, cells are formed which undergo transformation into fibres of areolar tissue by an elongation of their envelope, just as in the foetus. He thence concludes, that the formation of exudations and granulations are essentially similar processes. The exudation-globules (exsudatkugeln) discovered by Valentin, and described also by Gluge, which, according to the former, occur in every form of exudation, are, he says, allied to pus- corpuscles; and Henle also found that their nuclei are like- wise broken down by the action of acetic acid.

Suppuration, therefore, differs from exudation and granulation only in this circumstance, that a more fluid cytoblastema is formed, in which fewer perfect cells are developed. It represents an intermediate stage between the formation of the firm tissues and the true function of secretion; between which two processes again no essential difference exists.

2. Fibrous Tissue. The fibres of tendons and those of areolar tissue, differing but little from each other, and it being impossible to define precisely the respective limits of the two structures in the perfectly developed condition, we accordingly find that they agree in their mode of origin. Cells, resembling the fibre-cells of areolar tissue, are found in the tendons of the foetus at a very early age. They are arranged with their long axis corresponding to that of the tendon, and are prolonged in two opposite directions into fibres, which again subdivide into more minute ones. (See plate III, fig. 11.) These cells split into fibres precisely in the same way as those of areolar tissue; they have a nucleus similar to theirs in shape, which remains for a period, but is at last absorbed, leaving nothing but the fasciculus of fibres persistent. All these processes, however, take place much earlier in fibrous tissue than in the areolar, so that,