156 THE CARTILAGINOUS TISSUE. 



The relations of the fibrous system are numerous and im- 

 portant. We have seen it related with the osseous system, 

 without which connection the skeleton would tumble to 

 pieces, and the form, size, strength, and flexibility of the 

 body consequently be lost. We find it attached to mus- 

 cles, without which their properties of contraction could be 

 exercised w T ith but little advantage. We see it entering 

 into the organs of respiration, where, if absent, air could 

 not reach the lungs, and, consequently, the vital change of 

 venous into arterial blood could not take place. And we 

 also find the fibrous system connected with the brain and 

 nervous system, the liver, the spleen, the kidneys; in a 

 word, there is no organ or function with which it is not 

 more or less intimately associated, and without it the 

 whole machinery of life would stop. 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE CARTILAGINOUS TISSUE. 



ANALYSIS. 

 DEFINITION, DIVISION, FORM, PROPERTIES, STRUCTURE, FUNCTIONS, RELATIONS. 



THE cartilaginous tissue is readily known by its superior 

 elasticity, its great hardness, only second to that of the bones, 

 and by its whiteness and flexibility. It subserves the pur- 

 pose of skeleton in some of the inferior animals, being the 

 only substitute they have for bone. Cartilages are divided 

 into the temporary and permanent; the former regularly 

 disappearing at a determinate period of their growth, when 

 they ossify and form the bones, the latter remaining as per- 

 manent cartilages during life, as in the ribs, larynx, &c. 

 The permanent cartilages are divided into the articular, 

 or those which have no perichondrium, such as are seen in 

 the various joints, and into those which have this fibrous 

 covering, as the cartilages of the ribs and ear. 



This tissue has a variety of /orm, some of the cartilages 

 being long and narrow, others thin and broad, and all 



