204 FIBROUS SYSTEM. 



tfl. It is that ordinary stimulants do not excite it. It 

 is put in action by violent extension or sudden distention; 

 hence the acute pains of straining, stretching, or twisting 

 the joints or the spine. You will also here bear in mind 

 the severity of pain, when pus is confined by an aponeu- 

 rosis. 



Q. Are the vital forces of the fibrous system active? 



/#. Much more so than those of the osseous and carti- 

 laginous tissues; but the forces vary in different parts of it. 



Q. What remarkable circumstance is observed in in- 

 flammation of this system? 



ft. That it does not produce pus. 



Q. But does not the dura mater suppurate? 



t/?. Bichat says it does not; that the pus proceeds from 

 the tunica arachnoides on the dura mater. 



Q. What sympathies arise from this fibrous system ? 



t#. They are various. The animal sensibility of the 

 whole limb may be increased ; again, animal contractility 

 of remote parts is excited as in tetanic symptoms from 

 wounds, or in the sardonic grin from punctured diaphragm. 

 At another time you find the organic sensibility of parts 

 is exalted, as when the pericranium is inflamed from sym- 

 pathy with the dura mater. The sensible organic contrac- 

 tility is disturbed, as when the stomach vomits from wound 

 of the sclerotica, or when the heart is disturbed by fibrous 

 pain. 



Q. What vital property in the tissues is apt to be ex- 

 cited by sympathetic compressions? 



#. The predominant vital force of each system. 



