272 



SYNOVIAL SYSTEM. 



A. They are totally distinct, in function and organiza- 

 tion, from those capsules, which last are found only in one 

 or two articulations. 



Q. What are the red fatty bunches found about the ar- 

 ticulations? 



ft. They are points at which the blood-vessels going to 

 the synovial membrane divide most minutely: but they 

 are not glands, as has been supposed. 



Q. What properties of texture and of life belong to this 

 synovial tissue? 



.#. Slow extensibility, organic sensibility and insensi- 

 ble organic contractility. In disease the organic is exalt- 

 ed to animal sensibility, producing pain. 



Q. What experiment proves the presence of fibrous 

 capsules about a joint? 



A. Twist a joint where these capsules are, and there is 

 much pain ; but where the synovial membrane exists alone, 

 there is not this pain from twisting the joint. 



Q. Are the sympathies of the synovial tissue active? 



#. On the contrary they are few and weak. 



Q. What is the function of this texture? 



#. To. exhale synovia for the lubrication of the joints ? 



Q. At what period of life does this tissue bear the 

 greatest proportional development? 



Jl. In the foetus and the infant; for the reason that the 

 articulations are larger in a cartilaginous than in their 

 osseous state. 



2. Synovial System of the Tendons. 



Q. Where is this found? 



#. In the tendons of the extremities, but not in ti>< 

 trunk. 



