182 PRACTICAL HISTOLOGY. 



the animal put aside in a warm place. After four 

 hours, during the whole of which time it remains 

 under the influence of the chloral, it is killed by 

 bleeding. The abdomen is then opened, and the 

 viscera having been drawn aside, the under surface 

 of the diaphragm is exposed, and the blue which 

 covers it is washed off by a stream of water. If the 

 experiment has been successful, it will be found that 

 the whole network of lymphatics of the central ten- 

 don is filled with the blue fluid ; for this, assisted 

 by the constant respiratory movements of the dia- 

 phragm, has passed from the peritoneal cavity 

 directly through the open stomata into the lymphatic 

 vessels. The tendon may be cut out and placed in 

 alcohol, and eventually, after passing through tur- 

 pentine, mounted whole in Canada balsam, between 

 two glass plates, and used for examination with a 

 low power of the microscope. 



THE SYNOVIAL MEMBRANES. 



These structures, which are to be regarded as free 

 surfaces of the ordinary areolar tissue, and present 

 no essential differences in structural appearance from 

 this, may be prepared for microscopical examination 

 by the same methods. The preparations which are 

 of greatest value are those stained with nitrate of 

 silver. 



Preparations 9, 10, 11. Since, as is always the 

 case with the silver method, parts should be as fresh 

 as possible, and since, moreover, it is convenient to 

 have large joints to work with, a neat's foot should 

 be procured from the butcher's unless a freshly 

 amputated limb is available. In the neat's foot all 

 three kinds of sy no vial membranes may be found 

 and prepared. The mode of silvering the synovial 

 bursee is quite simple, and need not here be detailed ; 

 the preparation of the vaginal synovial membranes 

 was described under Connective Tissue (p. 65), this 

 being taken as typical of the structure of that tissue ; 



