Anatomy, descriptive and surgical / by Henry Gray ; with an introduction on general anatomy and development by T. Holmes ; the drawings by H.V. Carter ; with additional drawings in later editions ; ed. by T. Pickering Pick.

Henry Gray

Date:: 1883

Credit: Anatomy, descriptive and surgical / by Henry Gray ; with an introduction on general anatomy and development by T. Holmes ; the drawings by H.V. Carter ; with additional drawings in later editions ; ed. by T. Pickering Pick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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$or strong alcohol, the fat may be extracted from the vesicle, which is then seen empt}^ and shrunken. [Fig. 16. Blood-vessels of fat. 1. Minute flattened fat-lobule, in -which th-^ vessels only are represented. 3. Terminal artery. 4. Primitive vein. 5. Fat-cells of one border of the globule separately represented. (Magnified 100 diameters.) 2. Plan of arrangement of capillaries on exterior of fat-cells, more highly magnified.] Besides the fully-formed fat-cells above described, others may occasionally be found in the course of formation, especially in cases of sudden death during robust health. They are described by Rollett as, in the first stage, small round granular cells, provided with a roundish nucleus, into the interior of which a strongly- refracting drop of fat is then secreted, which is at first surrounded by a ring of the granular matter, and gradually increases so as to fill the cell. As the granular matter becomes less and less, the nucleus, which can at first be easily recognized, becomes less perceptible, but, according to this author, can always be brought into view by appropriate reagents. Fat is said to be first detected in the human embryo about the fourteenth week. Fi-. 17. Fig. 18. Pigment-cells of retina. ^V Development of fat. (Klein and Noble Smith.1 a. Minute artery, v. Minute vein. e. Capillary blood-vessels in the course of formation ; they are not hollowed out yet completely, there being still left in them protoplasmic septa, d. The ground substance, containing numerous nucleated cells, some of which are more distinctly branched and flattened than others, and appear therefore more spindle-shaped. According to Klein, the cells are formed by the transformation of the proto- plasmic connective-tissue corpuscles, into which small globules of fat find their way and increase until they distend the corpuscle into the thin mantle of proto- plasm which forms the cell-wall, and in which its nucleus is still to be seen.$