“The Constitution and Laws of Connecticut” in New England
States (vol. i., Boston, 1897); “Town Rule in Connecticut” in Political
Science Quarterly, vol. iv.; Bernard Steiner’s History of Education
in Connecticut (Washington, 1893), and the reports of the administrative
boards and officials, especially those of the Bureau of Labor
Statistics, the Board of Education, the Board of Charities and the
Treasurer. There is no completely satisfactory history of the state.
Johnston’s Connecticut is well written, but his theories regarding
the relationship between the townships and the state are not generally
accepted by historical scholars. There is a good chapter in
Herbert L. Osgood’s History of the American Colonies in the Seventeenth
Century (New York, 1904). Connecticut as a Colony and as
a State (Hartford, 1904; 4 vols.) is written from secondary sources,
as also is G. H. Hollister’s History of Connecticut (to 1818) (2 vols.
Hartford, 1857). Perhaps the most satisfactory historical work is
that of Benjamin Trumbull, A Complete History of Connecticut from
1630 to 1764 (New Haven, 1804–1818). E. E. Atwater’s History
of the Colony of New Haven (New Haven, 1881) is also valuable, and
the monograph of C. H. Levermore, “The Republic of New Haven,”
and that of C. M. Andrews “The River Towns of Connecticut” in
The Johns Hopkins University Studies (Baltimore, 1886 and 1889)
should be consulted for the institutions of the colonial period. For
the sources, see Colonial Records of Connecticut (15 vols., Hartford,
1850–1890); The Records of the Colony and the Plantation of New
Haven (2 vols., Hartford, 1857–1858) and Records of the State of
Connecticut (2 vols., Hartford, 1894–1895). The Collections (Hartford
1860 et seq.) of the Connecticut Historical Society contain valuable
material, especially the papers of Governor Joseph Talcott; and
the Papers (New Haven, 1865 et seq.) of the New Haven Colony
Historical Society are extremely valuable for local history; but
a vast number of documents relating to the colonial and state
periods, now in the state library at Hartford, have never been
published.
CONNECTICUT RIVER, a stream of the New England states,
U.S.A. It rises in Connecticut Lake in N. New Hampshire—several
branches join in N.E. Vermont, near the Canadian line,
about 2000 ft. above the sea—flows S., forming the boundary
between Vermont and New Hampshire, crosses Massachusetts
and Connecticut, and empties into Long Island Sound. Its course
is about 345 m. and its drainage basin 11,085 sq. m. The principal
tributary is the Farmington, which rises in the Green Mountains
in Massachusetts, and joins the Connecticut above Hartford.
From its head to the Massachusetts line the banks are wooded,
the bed narrow, the valley slopes cut sharply in crystalline
rocks, and the tributaries small and torrential. In the 273 m.
of this upper portion of its course the average descent is 15 to
34 ft. a mile. In Massachusetts and Connecticut the river flows
through a basin of weaker Triassic shales and sandstones, and
the valley consequently broadens out, making the finest agricultural
region of large extent in New England. Near Holyoke and
at other points rugged hills of harder trap rock rise so high above
the valley lowland that they are locally called mountains. From
their crests there are beautiful views of the fertile Connecticut
valley lowland and of the more distant enclosing hills of crystalline
rocks. The river winds over this lowland, for the most
part flowing over alluvial bottoms. The valley sides rise from
the river channels by a series of steps or terraces. These terraces
are noted for their perfection of form, being among the most
perfect in the country. They have been cut by the river in its
work of removing the heavy deposits of gravel, sand and clay
that were laid down in this lowland during the closing stages of
the Glacial Period, when great volumes of water, heavily laden
with sediment, were poured into this valley from streams issuing
from the receding ice front. In the course of this excavation of
glacial deposits the river has here and there discovered buried
spurs of rock over which the water now tumbles in rapids and
falls. For example, 11 m. above Hartford are the Enfield Falls,
where a descent of 31·8 ft. in low water (17·6 in highest water) is
made in 5·25 m. At Middletown, Conn., the river turns abruptly
S.E., leaving the belt of Triassic rocks and again entering the
area of crystalline rocks which border the lowland. Therefore,
from near Middletown to the sea the valley again narrows.
The river valley is a great manufacturing region, especially
where there is a good water-power derived from the stream,
as at Wilder and Bellows Falls, Vt., at Turners Falls and
Holyoke, Mass., and at Windsor Locks, Conn. Five miles below
Brattleboro, Vt., a huge power dam was under construction
in 1909. Efforts have been made by the United States government
to open the river to Holyoke, and elaborate surveys were
made in 1896–1907. At Enfield Rapids is a privately built
canal with locks 80 ft. long and 18 ft. wide, handling boats
with a draft of 3 ft. From Hartford seaward the Connecticut is a
tidal and navigable stream. Bars form at the mouth and have
had to be removed annually by dredging. From 1829–1899 the
Federal government expended $585,640 on the improvement
of the river. During the colonial period the Connecticut river
played an important part in the settlement of New England.
The rival English and Dutch fur traders found it a convenient
highway, and English homeseekers were soon attracted to its
valley by the fertility of the meadow lands. From the middle
of the 17th century until the advent of the railway the stream
was a great thoroughfare between the seaboard and the region
to the north. Its valley was consequently settled with unusual
rapidity, and is now a thickly populated region, with many
flourishing towns and cities.
See Annual Reports of the Chief of Engineers, U.S. Army, passim (index, 1900); E. M. Bacon’s Connecticut River and the Valley of the Connecticut (New York, 1906); G. S. Roberts’s Historic Towns of the Connecticut River Valley (Schenectady, New York, 1906); and Martha K. Genth, “Valley Towns of Connecticut,” in the Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, vol. xxxix. No. 9 (New York, 1907).
CONNECTIVE TISSUES, in anatomy. Very widely distributed throughout the tissues and organs of the animal body, there
occur tissues characterized by the presence of a high proportion
of intercellular substance. This intercellular substance may be
homogeneous in structure, or, as is more commonly the case,
it may consist, in whole or in part, of a number of fibrous
elements. All these tissues are grouped together under the
name Connective Tissues. They comprise the following types:—areolar
tissue, adipose tissue, reticular or lymphoid tissue, white
fibrous tissue, elastic tissue, cartilage and bone. They are all
developed from the same layer of embryonic cells and all perform
a somewhat similar function, viz. to connect and support the other
tissues and organs. According to the nature of their work the
ground substance varies in its texture, being fibrous in some,
calcareous and rigid in others. As forming the most typical of
these tissues, we will first consider the structure of areolar connective tissue.
Areolar Tissue.—This tissue is found in its most typical form uniting the skin to the deeper lying parts. It varies greatly in its density according to the animal and the position of the body from which it is taken. A piece of the looser variety may be spread out as a thin sheet and then examined microscopically. It is then seen to consist chiefly of bundles of extremely fine fibres running in all directions and interlacing with one another to form a meshwork. The spaces, or areolae thus formed give the name to this tissue (see fig. 1). The constituent fibres of each bundle are termed White Fibres. The bundles vary very much in size, but the fibres of which they are composed are of wonderfully constant size. A bundle may branch by sending off its fibres to unite with similar branches from neighbouring bundles, but the individual fibres do not branch nor do they at any time fuse with one another. They form bundles of greater or less size by being arranged parallel to one another, and in these bundles are bound together by some kind of cement substance. The meshwork formed by these fibres is filled up by a ground substance in the composition of which mucin takes some part. In this ground substance lie the cells of the tissue. In addition to the white fibres a second variety of fibres is also present in this tissue. They can be readily distinguished from the white fibres by their larger and variable size, by their more distinct outline, and by the fact that they, for the most part, run as straight lines through the preparation. Moreover they frequently branch, and the branches unite with those of neighbouring fibres. They are known as Yellow Elastic Fibres. Several of these will be found torn across in any preparation especially at the edges, and the torn ends will be found to be curled up in a very characteristic manner. The two types of fibre further differ from one another both chemically and physically. Thus the white fibre swells up and dissolves in boiling water, yielding a solution of
