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CONNECTIVE TISSUES. 545
The fibrils of the connective tissue are elastic and swell slightly in
water, somewhat more in dilute alkalies or in acetic acid. On the other
hand, they shrink by the action of certain metallic salts, such as ferrous
sulphate or mercuric chloride, and tannic acid, which form insoluble
compounds with the collagen. Among these compounds, which prevent
putrefaction of the collagen, that with tannic acid has been found of
the greatest technical importance in the preparation of leather. In
regard to the collagens, gelatins, elastins, and reticulins, see pages 116
to 121.
The tissues described under the names mucous or gelatinous tissues
are characterized more by their physical than by their chemical prop-
erties, and have been but little studied. This much, however, is
known, that the mucous or gelatinous tissues contain, at least in certain
cases, as in the Acalephse, no mucin.
The umbilical cord is the most accessible material for the investiga-
tion of the chemical constituents of the gelatinous tissues. The mucin
occurring therein yields, according to van Lier, an ethereal sulphuric
acid (glucothionic acid) like the tendon mucoid. C. Th. Morner 1
has found a mucoid in the vitreous humor which contains 12.27 per
cent nitrogen and 1.19 per cent sulphur.
Young connective tissue is richer in mucoid than old. Halliburton 2
found an average of 7.66 p. m. mucoid in the skin of very young children
and only 3.85 p. m. in the skin of adults. In so-called myxcedema,
in which a re-formation of the connective tissue of the skin takes place,
the quantity of mucoid is also increased.
The connective tissue and also the elastic tissue are richer in water
and poorer in solids in young animals as compared with full-grown
animals. This may be seen from the following analyses of the Achilles
tendon (Buerger and Gies) and of the ligamentum nuchse (Vande-
grift and Gies 3
):
Achilles tendon. Ligament.
Calf. Ox. Calf. Ox.
Water 675.1p.m. 628.7 p.m. 651.0p.m. 575.7 p.m.
Solids 324.9 " 371.3 " 394.0 " 424.3
< )r«anic bodies 318.4 " 366.6 " 342.4 " 419.6
Inorganic bodies 6.1 " 4.7 " 6.6 " 4.7
Fat 10.4 " 11.2
Proteid 2.2 " 6.16
Mucoid 12.83 " 5.25
Elastin 16.33 " 316.70
Collagen 315.88 " 72.30
Extractives, etc 8.96 " 7.99
1
Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., IS, 250.
2
Mucin in Myxcedema: Further Analyses. King’s College Collected Papers
No. 1, 1893.
1
Buerger and Gies, Amer. Journ. of Physiol., 6; Vandegrift and Gies, ibid, 5.
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