OF THE ARTICULAR SYNOVIAL CAPSULE. 1G/ 



are humected by a liquid internally, and impart a similar facility 

 of sliding to the parts they invest. 



For a long time they were confounded with the capsular 

 ligaments of the joints. Nesbit, Bono, and W. Hunter had al- 

 ready observed that they formed a membrane distinct from 

 the articular ligaments and cartilages. Monro had remarked 

 their analogy to the other synovial and serous membranes; 

 Bichat has fixed our attention more particularly upon these 

 membranes, and has given a more complete general descrip- 

 tion of them. Monro and Mascagni have figured them. 



212. The number of these membranes is very great, being 

 about equal to that of the articulations. This number is not 

 quite equal to that of the latter, because, on the one hand, some 

 of these membranes are common to several articulations, as in 

 the carpus, for instance, and on the other, some of the articu- 

 lations contain several membranes. They are found, how- 

 ever, in the articulations only. 



213. The following varieties are observed in the configura- 

 tion of these membranes: 1st, some resemble simple, rounded 

 sacs, like the vesicular membranes of the tendons: this is seen 

 in the articulations of the phalanges with each other and with 

 the metatarsus and metacarpus: here is nothing at all complex, 

 and a small round ampulla is all that is attained by insuffla- 

 tion. 2d, in some articulations, the cavity of the membrane 

 seems to be traversed by a ligament or tendon about which 

 this is reflected, forming for it a sheath, continuous at its two 

 extremities with the common envelope, that the synovial 

 membrane furnishes to the articulations; this synovial mem- 

 brane is then vaginiform: this disposition is found in thecoxo- 

 femoral, scapulo-humeral articulations, &c. 3d, a greater de- 

 gree of complication is observed in some other articulations; in 

 that of the knee, for instance, we perceive a common enve- 

 lope, sheaths for the tendon of the popliteal muscle and the 

 adipose ligament, and folds moreover invest the semi-lunar 

 and crucial ligaments, which raise up the membrane and project 

 into the articulation. We might then establish, nearly the fol- 

 lowing order in the complication of the synovial membranes: 



simple ampulla; an ampulla raised up by fatty flakes; this last 

 23 



