ANATOMY OF CARTILAGE. 



48T 



FIG 



base, called cartilagine. By prolonged boiling this is 

 changed into a new substance, called chondrine. The or- 

 ganic matter is united with a certain proportion of inorganic 

 salts. This fundamental substance is elastic and resisting. 

 The cartilages are closely united to the subjacent bony tis- 

 sue. The free articular surface has already been described. 1 



Cartilage- Cavities. 

 These cavities are round- 

 ed or ovoid, measuring 

 from Y^VF to -g-J-g of an 

 inch in diameter. 2 They 

 are generally smaller in 

 the articular cartilages 

 than in other situations, 

 as in the costal carti- 

 lages. They are simple 

 excavations in the funda- 

 mental substance, have 

 no lining membrane, and 

 contain a small quantity 

 of a viscid liquid, with 

 one or more cells. They 

 are entirely analogous 

 to the lacunse of the 

 bones. 



Cartilage -Cell s. 

 Xear the surface of the 

 articular cartilages the 

 cavities contain each a 



single cell; -but in the gection of a diartta odiai cartilage; 



deeper portions the cav- 

 ities are long and con- 

 tain from two to twenty 

 cells arranged longitu- 

 dinally. The cells are of about the size of the smallest 



1 See page 40. 2 POUCHET, Precis tfhistologie humaine, Paris, 1864, p. 117- 



