326 GENERAL ANATOMY. 



together by this tissue, that infiltration and maceration render 

 very apparent. We find adipose tissue also in the thickness 

 of the ligamentous organs. The ligamentous tissue is gene- 

 rally but little vascular; nevertheless, we find at its surface, 

 and we may follow into its substance some small blood-vessels. 

 In order to make them visible, we must, after having injected 

 them with a red injection, dry the part, then dip it in oil 

 of turpentine to render it transparent. Some portions of the 

 ligamentous tissue are very vascular; such especially are the 

 periosteum and dura mater. Lymphatic vessels are perceived 

 in the largest organs of this system. It is doubtful if there be 

 any nerves. 



502. The ligamentous tissue naturally contains a great 

 proportion of water. Dessiccation renders it hard, trans- 

 parent, elastic and brittle; gives it a reddish or yellowish co- 

 lour, and renders its fibres only slightly distinct. It long re- 

 sists maceration, which softens and renders it floculent at its 

 surface, separates its fibres, by rendering apparent the cellular 

 tissue in its thickness, and finally converts the fibres them- 

 selves into mucous substance. Fire violently crisps it, and 

 leaves behind a large quantity of charcoal. Decoction crisps it 

 very much at first, renders it yellow, hard, elastic, and finally 

 reduces it into gelatin. Cold and warm mineral acids dissolve it: 

 nitric acid commences with crisping it. Cold acitic acid 

 swells and reduces it into a gelatinous mass; when warm it 

 melts it entirely. Alkalies swell and soften it; in this state its 

 fibres separate easily, and present the colours of the rainbow. 

 503. The elasticity of the ligamentous tissue when fresh is 

 very moderate, but it is strongly marked when dry. Its ex- 

 tensibility is almost null, when the effort is sudden; hence the 

 strangulation produced by ligamentous parts, and the rupture 

 of this tissue by violent distention. But when, on the con- 

 trary, the causes of distention act slowly and gradually, the 

 ligamentous tissue yield by becoming thinner and its fibres 

 looser, and if the slow distention be carried too far, they even 

 separate. We must not confound with this phenomenon the 

 augmentation of the volume of the fibrous tissue by excess of 

 nutrition. The retractility of this tissue is proportionate to 



