Researches, tending to prove the non-vascularity and the peculiar uniform mode of organization and nutrition of certain animal tissues : viz. articular cartilage, and the cartilage of the different classes of fibro-cartilage, the cornea, the crystalline lens, and the vitreous humour, and the epidermoid appendages / by Joseph Toynbee.

  • Toynbee, Joseph, 1815-1866.
Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Researches, tending to prove the non-vascularity and the peculiar uniform mode of organization and nutrition of certain animal tissues : viz. articular cartilage, and the cartilage of the different classes of fibro-cartilage, the cornea, the crystalline lens, and the vitreous humour, and the epidermoid appendages / by Joseph Toynbee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    More limited observations upon the state of these vessels in subsequent periods of life, lead to the belief, that, compared to the size of the fibro-cartilage, they gra- dually become more scanty and small from the period of youth to that of old age. 3. Researches upon the vessels of the Jihro-cartilage of the symphysis pubis lead me to conclusions similar to those I have just related. Of the Vessels of the Inter-articular Fibro-Cartilage.—The central part of the in- ter-articular fibro-cartilages, in the injected specimens that I have examined from the human foetus as early as the third or fourth month, does not contain any vessels. I possess, however, the inter-articular cartilage of the temporo-maxillary articulation of a foetal Calf, which is pervaded by blood-vessels throughout its entire substance; a disposition which may take place in all fibro-cartilages at very early periods of their development. Subsequent to these very early periods, however, the central portion, which, like articular cartilage, is subject to concussion and compression, does not contain any blood-vessels. The inter-articular fibro-cartilages are pierced at their circumference by arteries of considerable size, which converge towards the central cartilaginous portion, into which, however, they do not penetrate, but upon its confines they form dilatations, with which the veins are continuous*, Plate XV. fig. 7- In some instances, as in the sterno-clavicular fibro-cartilage, the arteries form intri- cate ramifications and convolutions at the circumference of the cartilage; in other instances, as in the semilunar fibro-cartilages of the knee-joints, they terminate in more simple dilatations, Plate XV. fig. 7- The vessels of the fibro-cartilages in some parts, as in those of the knee, form a most intricate flexus in the fibrous tissue. Vessels extend to a short distance on the surface of fibro-cartilages, beneath the synovial membrane, but they are arrested at the part where these structures are sub- ject to pressure, and at this margin they form dilatations similar to the synovial vessels which cover the border of articular cartilages. The Second Class of Non-vascular Animal Tissues. Of the Cornea, the Crystalline Lens, and the Vitreous Humour. The organs enumerated above may be considered as constituting a class of non- vascular organized tissues, inasmuch as each of them is transparent, each forms a part of the eye-ball, and performs a similar function, viz. of transmitting the rays of light to the retina. These three structures are nourished by the penetration into them of a nutrient fluid, which is derived from the numerous blood-vessels which encircle them; although each of them contains corpuscles, they differ from each other in their structure as well as in their relations with the vascular system. Thus the crystalline lens is soft externally, and hard towards its centre, and the * For the injection of the hlood-vessels of fibro-cartilage, young subjects should be selected.