150 -.7 LIGAMENTS. 



by a vascular web. Beclard considers them as condensed 

 cellular tissue, since maceration softens and reduces them 

 to this structure. Isenflam supposes them to be cellular 

 filaments, containing gluten and albumen; while M. Chaus- 

 isier thinks they are primitive and peculiar. The microscope 

 lias measured the ultimate filaments into which the fas- 

 ciculi are capable of being resolved, and determined it to be 

 from the 1-30,000 to the 1-10,000 of an inch. The vital 

 properties of the fibrous tissue, in the healthy state, are 

 very obscure. It then evinces little or no sensibility, while 

 in inflammation it is susceptible of the most acute pain, 

 Its power of repair when injured or lost is considered to 

 be very great. 



In the embryo, this tissue, like all other parts, is soft 

 and mucus-like in its appearance. It is distinguished 

 about three months after impregnation. In the infant it 

 presents a pearly white appearance, is more extensible than 

 in the adult, yields more readily and is less liable to break, 

 The common functions of the fibrous system are mechanical, 

 and will be noticed more particularly under its several 

 divisions, which we shall now take up separately. 



LIGAMENTS. 



Sydesmology (awSeaftos, a ligament, xoyoj, discourse,) is the 

 term applied to the study of the ligaments. Ligament 

 (from ligare, to bind,) is so called because it ties the several 

 bones together in the skeleton; the connection between any 

 two constituting a joint, or articulation. Ligaments most 

 distinctly represent the true character of the fibrous sys- 

 tem. They are mostly situated at the extremities of all 

 bones forming joints. Unfortunately, this term has also 

 been applied to an entirely different structure, as to the se- 

 rous membrane of the abdomen, whose reflections upon the 

 liver, uterus, &c., are called the ligaments of these or- 

 gans, simply from the fact of their keeping these parts 

 in their natural positions, and not at all from the serous 

 membrane being supposed to have any really fibrous struc- 

 ture. The ligaments are very numerous, and get their 



