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It has been a century since A.T.

Still, one of the pioneers of the manual treatment of the human body, first noted the
significance of the fascial system. Initially, his view of the comprehensive significance of this type of tissue was not
seriously considered; however, an increasing number of approaches were being developed in which the individual
aspects of this tissue were revealed in greater detail. During the 1930s, the science of anatomy focused on the fascial
layers of the neck region for the purpose of discovering the transmission paths for certain pathogens. Later, as
research began on the function of connective tissue within the immune system, the role of connective tissue overall
attracted much more interest. However, the layers of connective tissue and their special formations, the fasciae, were
given far less attention than the classical areas of the musculoskeletal system, organ systems, and nerve sys-tems.
The role played by connective tissue for and between these three individual systems was little known.
In spite of the excellent topographical work that has been accomplished up to now, even today many anatomy
textbooks contain only a marginal discussion of connective tissue for the purpose of clearly representing the details
of the body. In these textbooks, most of the fasciae and numerous membranes remain unnoted, considered
unimportant filler material. Although this limited description has some use in certain branches of medicine, it also
contributes to a narrowing of perspective, in which our models of the human body are taken as
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Chapter 1
Introduction
objective reality and therefore the viability of other models with other classification schemes and points of view is
ignored.
In the meantime, the science of anatomy has shown us that connective tissue for each of the systems mentioned
above has clearly describable functions. It is known that it is just as present in the epimysial and divisional layers of
the musculoskeletal system as in the fascial envelope layers of the organs and in the perineurial sheets of the nervous
system. Histology is able to show the presence of connective tissue ranging from large areas of subdermal tissue to
the periosteum and the smallest units of the cell. Thus, we now have enough information to understand the functions
of each of the various layers of connective tissue within one bodily system. We can see how the fascial system
surrounds individual muscles, divides them, and connects them to the periosteum by way of the tendons. We can see
how membranes extend from the interior of the cranium by way of the dura mater and perineuria into the finest
arborizations of the nervi nervosum. And it is therefore possible for us to construct an overall blueprint of the body
as an interlaced system of connective tissue chambers.
This sort of analysis and classification therefore provides insight into the functions that the connective tissue
performs for the anatomically defined subsystems. We also know which general functions the connective tissue
performs for metabolism and the immune system. However, it is still

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