OF THE SEROUS SPLANCHNIC MEMBRANES. 173 



rus, Brambilla, and M. Brodie have described these cancerous 

 fungi. 



221, Foreign bodies are formed in the articulations: they 

 are most generally seated in the knee. Their size as well as 

 their number and consistence varies, as has been already stated, 

 while speaking of the serous system in general; they are form- 

 ed outside the synovial membrane, and appear to be the result 

 of a peculiar change of the nutrition. They gradually advance 

 into the interior of the membrane, and are finally detached in 

 the way before mentioned. Their presence, which is accom- 

 panied by violent pain, when placed between the articulating 

 surfaces, produces no uneasiness, when in moveable parts, and 

 where the articulation is loose. Depressions more or less deep, 

 are sometimes finally made by their pressure on the cartilages, 

 and as these depressions correspond in form to that of the bo- 

 dies lodged there, it has been said, that the latter were pieces 

 of cartilage separated by external violence; but to prevent the 

 admission of this opinion, it is sufficient to consider, that in 

 the greater number of cases in which those bodies are found, 

 the depressions do not exist, that they have no resemblance to 

 fractured surfaces, and that the bodies are much thicker than 

 the articular cartilages themselves. 



ARTICLE IV. 



OF THE SEROUS SPLANCHNIC MEMBRANES. 



222. The serous membranes, properly so called, also styled 

 the diaphanous membranes, are those which line the splanchnic 

 cavities, and which furnish tunicks more or less perfect, to the 

 viscera situated therein. 



223. These, like all other serous membranes, were for a 

 long time confounded, both in their healthy and diseased con- 

 ditions, with the organs they envelop, and the parts they in- 

 vest. With respect to the first, however, each of these mem- 

 branes had been successively and exactly described, independ- 

 ently of the parts they cover; some anatomists, Monro for in- 



