160 GENERAL ANATOMY. 



cyst. The three species of simple acephalocysts themselves, 

 whose animality is yet doubtful, approximate in a certain de- 

 gree to the cysts. I have taken from under the skin of the 

 neck, and several times from under the skin of the mammae, 

 acephalocysts of these species that were single, not encysted, 

 not adhering, it is true, but agglutinated to the cellular tissue. 

 Most commonly we find one or the other of the three species 

 of simple acephalocysts, assembled in great numbers and free, 

 in a distinct cyst. 



A modern physician* has attributed the origin of tubercles, 

 of all tumours, and even of all foreign bodies suspended or free 

 in the serous and synovial cavities, to the formation, develop- 

 ment and transformations of the hydatids, or hydatiform cysts 

 of which we have been speaking. 



After having given the general history of the serous system, 

 we must describe in succession the various species which com- 

 pose it. 



SECTION II. 



ARTICLE I. 

 OF THE SUB-CUTANEOUS SYNOVIAL BURS.E. 



201. The synovial or mucilaginous sub-cutaneous bursae, 

 bursas mucosas sub-cutanese^ had not been described by anato- 

 mists. Some pathologists, and particularly Gooch, Camper, 

 and lately M. Asselin, have spoken of their dropsy, and while 

 treating of this, Camper has a word upon their healthy state. 

 I have examined and described them for a long time in my lec- 

 tures; I have also mentioned them in the additions to the gene- 

 ral anatomy of Bichat, and in the Dictionnaire de Medecin. 



202. The synovial bursae, whose rudiments are partly seen 

 in the loose and very extensible cellular tissue, which exists 

 between all the very moveable parts, are found under the 

 skin, wherever that membrane covers parts that exercise great 



* See J. Baron. An inquiry &c. on tuberculous diseases. London, 1817. 



