STRUCTURAL BASIS OF THE HUMAN BODY. 41 



very fine fibres, which twine about the cells in various directions and 

 enclose them in a kind of network. 



3. White Fibro-Cartilage. 



Distribution. The different situations in which white fibro -cartilage 

 is found have given rise to the following classification: 



1. Inter-articular nbro-cartilage, e.g., the semilunar cartilages of 

 the knee-joint. 



FIG. 41. 



FIG. 42. 



FIG. 41. Section of the epiglottis. (Baly.) 



FIG. 42. Tranverse section through the intervertebral cartilage of the tail of mouse, showing 

 lamellse of fibrous tissue with cartilage cells arranged in rows between them. The cells are seen in 

 profile, and being flattened, appear staff-shaped. Each cell lies in a capsule. X 350. (Klein and 

 Noble Smith.) 



2. Circumferential or marginal, as on the edges of the acetabulum 

 and glenoid cavity. 



3. Connecting, e.g., the inter-vertebral fibro-cartilages. 



4. In the sheaths of tendons, and sometimes in their substance. In 

 the latter situation, the nodule of fibro-cartilage is called a sesamoid fibro- 

 cartilage, of which a specimen may be 



found in the tendon of the tibialis posti- 

 cus, in the sole of the foot, and usually 

 in the neighboring tendon of the peroneus 

 longus. 



Structure. White fibro-cartilage (Fig. 

 43), which is much more widely distribu- 

 ted throughout the body than the forego- 

 ing kind, is composed, like it, of cells and 

 a matrix; the latter, however, being made 

 up almost entirely of fibres closely resem- 

 bling those of white fibrous tissue. 



In this kind of fibro-cartilage it is not 

 unusual to find a great part of rfcs mass 

 composed almost exclusively of fibres, and deriving the name of cartilage 

 only from the fact that in another portion, continuous with it, cartilage 

 cells may be pretty freely distributed. 





FIG. 43. White fibro-cartilage from 

 an intervertebral ligament. (Klein and 

 Noble Smith.) 



