316 SPECIAL HISTOLOGY. 



other. 1 The intervertebral ligaments are liable to various 

 forms of degeneration; they may become ossified, from their 

 cartilaginous lamellae outwards, the true fibrous substance 

 probably at the same time disappearing ; and in this way 

 anchylosis of two vertebrae frequently takes place. They may 

 become atrophied, easily broken down, and disintegrated, 

 either in the nuclear portion, or elsewhere in circumscribed 

 spots, into a dirty grumous matter. And lastly, it would 

 appear that although in the normal state, they contain no 

 vessels, vessels may, under certain morbid conditions, be de- 

 veloped in them ; at all events, extravasations of blood are not 

 unfrequently met with, most generally close to the bones or 

 in connection with them. 



In the symphysis pubis, the cartilaginous layer, which is 

 thickest in the centre and anteriorly, and connected with the 

 bones by a very uneven surface, consists, at the sides, where it is 

 from g to V" thick, of true cartilage, with a homogeneous, finely 

 granular matrix, and simple cells, measuring 0-01 — O024'". 

 In the centre, the matrix is softer and fibrous, and in this 

 situation, (more particularly, it would appear, in the female sex,) 

 there occasionally exists an irregular narrow cavity, with uneven 

 walls, and containing a somewhat slimy fluid, originating evi- 

 dently in a solution of the innermost cartilaginous layers, and 

 of which manifest traces may also be perceived in the carti- 

 laginous substance immediately enclosing it. The outer 

 layers of the symphysis, which, as is well known, are most 

 developed anteriorly and superiorly, do not arise, with the 

 exception of the outermost lamellae composed of pure con- 

 nective tissue, directly from the bones, but, properly speaking, 

 unite only the outer portions of the above-described cartila- 

 ginous layers, and consist principally of a fibrous substance, to 

 all appearance identical with connective tissue, and occasionally 

 containing cartilage cells. 



1 [In our note on the connective tissue, we have already expressed the views we 

 entertain of the homologies of the elements of cartilage and connective tissue ; and 

 we need merely add that we know of no locality in which the transition of the matrix 

 of cartilage into the pseudo-fibrillated collagenous portion of connective tissue is 

 more unmistakeably exhibited, than in the intervertebral cartilages of a young 

 animal, e. g., a kitten. We have, in that note, endeavoured to show that the notion 

 of the existence of any real difference in the development of the fibrillatcd element 

 in the different forms of connective tissue is unfounded. — Eds.] 



