Volume 2

Elements of anatomy / by Jones Quain.

  • Jones Quain
Date:
1837
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elements of anatomy / by Jones Quain. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    82/966 (page 30)
    crystalline form; but a more attentive examination, with at the same time due attention to the regulation of the light, will show them to be rounded or slightly oblong. ‘Their size varies in different animals, being greater in the hog than in the sheep or ox. ‘¢ It may be objected,” says Raspail, ‘‘ that as these par- ticles are as fluid, or nearly so, as oil, they are not really cellules, but drops of oily matter aggregated together. By puncturing one or more of them, it will be found that each is enclosed in its proper vesicle.” ‘Though De Blainville denies the existence of any envelope to the adipose granules distinct from the common cellular tissue, he still admits that each consists of a more con- crete outer coating with something more fluid in the interior; but he seeks to explain this away by supposing that the two elements of adeps may even in the living state be distinct, the stearine forming the outer, and the oleine the inner part of the adipose granules. This opinion is not likely to be adopted by many. Adipose tissue may be said to consist (on examining a small mass such as is represented, fig. 2,) 1. of cellular tissue which forms the nidus, or common substratum, the cellules of which, with their membranous walls, are distinctly seen, c ; 2, of nutrient vessels, d, which ramify with extreme minuteness amongst these: 3. in the interior of each cell others are enclos- ed of still smaller size; and so, perhaps, in the third remove, we get to what may be considered the ultimate vesicle. These included vesicles appear to be attached at one point to the cell which contains them: this Raspail likens to the hilus in more complex structures, fig. 2, e. ‘The vessels at their capillary ter- minations secrete or exhale the adipose matter into the vesicles, and this takes place in considerable quantity in certain states of the system, or under the influence of rest and nutritious diet. In opposite circumstances,—for instance, under privations, or in ill health, or febrile action,—a rapid absorption is observed to be set up. It appears, then, to be deposited as if by an exhalent action beyond the current of the circulation, but still so as to be readily brought back when the wants of the system require it. The mode of distribution, as well as the appearance, colour, and consistence of adipose matter, vary considerably in different situations. It extends in the form of a layer of variable thick- ness under the external tegument. It forms masses which fill