CONNECTIVE TISSUE. 



193 



one or two plastids remain as unchanged cartilage corpuscles. 

 At the periphery of the territories, branching plastids form, giv- 

 ing rise to the elastic reticulum. The whole of the basis-substance 

 remains traversed by a delicate reticulum of living matter. 



Reticular cartilage is met with in a few places only the auri- 

 cle of the ear, the wall of 

 the external auditory canal, 

 and of the Eustachian tubes, 

 the epiglottis, and the small- 

 est cartilages of the larynx, 

 including the vocal process 

 of the arytasnoid cartilages. 

 The tarsus of the eyelids, 

 which was formerly consid- 

 ered cartilaginous, is now 

 known to be constructed of 

 a very dense fibrous con- 

 nective tissue, richly sup- 

 plied with branching plas- 

 tids. 



(bj Striated or Fibrous 

 Cartilage. There is scarcely 

 any reason for considering 

 this tissue to be sui generis, 

 as it is invariably mixed 

 with hyaline cartilage, 

 either in its interior or 

 at its peripheral portions, 

 where fibrous cartilage es- 

 tablishes the connection 

 between hyaline cartilage 

 and fibrous connective tis- 



FIG. 73. STRIATED OR FIBROUS CARTI- 

 LAGE FROM THE CONDYLE OF FEMUR OF 



A BABBIT, EIGHT MONTHS OLD. SAGIT- 

 TAL SECTION, NEAR THE LATERAL SUR- 

 FACE OF THE CONDYLE. CHROMIC ACID 

 SPECIMEN. [PUBLISHED IN 1873.] 



Transition of hyaline cartilage, H, into fibrous car- 

 tilage, F. Magnified 800 diameters. 



sue. Fibrous cartilage, 

 therefore, blends with both 

 the last-named tissues, and 

 represents a stage of tran- 

 sition of one into the other. 

 Its basis-substance is glue-yielding and composed of delicate 

 fibrillae, usually without a definite formation of bundles, while 

 the plastids are large and nucleated, either regularly scattered or 

 arranged in chain-like rows. (See Fig. 73.) 



According to C. Toldt, we meet with fibrous cartilage in the 

 13 



