CARTILAGE. 
141 
uniform in size, and closely packed ; in others, the 
intercellular substance is fibrous, and occasionally 
some of the cells, as I have just mentioned when 
speaking of the ear of the Rabbit , can be separated 
from the fibrous net-work surrounding them. The 
reverse is the case in sections of the costal cartilage 
of the human subject, in which the cells are few, and 
widely scattered, whilst the matrix is most abundant ; 
the cells are of large size, and frequently arranged in 
rows, their nuclei are clear and transparent, and the 
matrix minutely granular. 
I now proceed to describe the mode in which this 
permanent form of cartilage is supplied with blood. 
Cartilage, as I have already stated, is invested with a 
fine glistening membrane called perichondrium , which 
supports the vessels and is prolonged with them into 
the interior of all the thicker cartilages ; the distribution 
of the vessels is very like that in areolar tissue. 
In an injected specimen of cartilage from the ear 
of the Rabbit , the vessels are of large size, and each 
artery is accompanied by two veins, many of which are 
perceptible to the naked eye, but the vessels are by 
no means numerous. 
On the cartilage of the auricle of the human ear, 
I have observed that the vessels of the outer surface 
are more numerous and larger than on the inner sur- 
face. On the former, the vessels are exceedingly large 
and tortuous, (Fig. 112), and their arrangement is 
manifestly different from those of areolar tissue. On 
