328 



SPECIAL HISTOLOGY. 



Fig. 128. 



extent, — never over the entire surface. The articular ligaments, 

 with the exception of the softer ligamentum teres, are composed 



of the same firm connective tissue (in 

 the costal ligaments containing cartilage- 

 cells), as that of which the tendons and 

 5 the fihrous ligaments, elsewhere, are 

 constituted. The internal ligaments 

 (liy. cruciata), however, present softer 

 connective tissue, containing vessels, and 

 covered with epithelium. 



Within the synovial capsules, is con- 

 tained, in small quantity, a clear yel- 

 lowish fluid, which may he drawn out 

 into threads, — the synovia, — and which, 

 in its chemical composition, appears 

 very closely to resemble mucus, and 

 particularly in its containing mucin in 

 solution. Examined under the microscope, in its normal condi- 

 tion, this secretion exhibits nothing worthy of much remark, 

 consisting simply of fluid which is rendered turbid by acetic 

 acid, and very frequently contains epithelial cells, which have 

 often undergone a fatty metamorphosis, nuclei of such cells, 

 and fat globules ; under conditions, not quite normal, it may 

 also contain, blood- and lymph-corpuscles, detached portions of 

 the synovial processes of the articular cartilage, and a structure- 

 less gelatinous substance. 



EfJ 



[The normal, healthy synovia, which in the Ox, according to 

 Frerichs (Wagn. 'Handb/ Ill, 1), contains 94'8 water, 

 05 mucus and epithelium, 007 fat, 35 albumen and extractive 

 matter, and 0'9 salts, is a secretion, not having essentially 

 any formed elements in it, which simply exudes from the 

 vessels of the synovial membrane with the intermediation of 

 the epithelium; and, in fact, from all its vascular processes, 

 which are destined as it were for this special function, and 

 always exist at the border of a cartilage requiring a lubricating 

 covering. The non-vascular appendages of these processes give 



Fig. 128. From the falciform ligament of the knee : a, a filament of connective 

 tissue with oval cells disposed in a series, and resembling cartilage cells ; b, a similar 

 filament with more elongated cells and nuclei. 



