OF THE FIBRO-CARTILAGINOUS TISSUE. 339 



F. OF THE FIBROUS CAPSULES OF SOME ORGANS. 



527. Finally, the eye is contained in a capsular membrane 

 called sclerotica and cornea; the testicle in one which is named 

 albuginea, both remarkable for their thickness and firmness. 

 The ovaries, the kidneys, liver, and some other parts, have en- 

 velopes of the same kind, but not nearly so thick or solid. 

 Most of these capsules, in fact all of them excepting the scle- 

 rotica, have fibrous internal prolongations which extend into 

 the tissue of the organ. They are perforated by some open- 

 ings for the passage of vessels, but have very little vascularity 

 themselves. Their common uses are to determine the form 

 of the organs which they envelop, contain, support, and pro- 

 tect their internal parts. 



SECTION III. 



OF THE FIBRO-CARTILAGINOUS TISSUE. 



528. The fibro-cartilaginous tissue is fibrous and tenacious 

 like the ligamentous tissue, of which it really forms a part; 

 white, very dense and elastic, like the cartilaginous tissue, it 

 seems intermediate between the ligaments and cartilages. 



529. Galen has named certain ligaments neurochondroid 

 fvpo^ovSpw65 awfcs/toe; Vesalius calls them cartilaginous liga- 

 ments; Morgagni considers them as intermediate between the 

 ligamentsand cartilages; Weitbrechtcomprehends them among 

 the ligaments; Haase, on the contrary, classes them in the 

 chondrology, under the names of ligamentous and mixed car- 

 tilages. Bichat has established a fibro-cartilaginous system, 

 composed of the cartilaginiform ligamentcus tissue of which 

 we here speak, and of a part of the cartilaginous tissue, which 

 will be described in the next chapter; but this system of or- 

 gans does not appear to me to exist in nature, for which reason 

 I have rejected it. The fibro-cartilages, of which we speak, 



