The word cartilage is employed too vaguely. It designates, in the
common acceptation, bodies whose organization differ essentially.
The cartilages of the nose and those of the articular surfaces have
certainly but a very remote analogy between them; it is necessary
then to establish a line of demarcation. I have endeavoured to do
it by making two systems of them; one comprehends the cartilages
properly so called, the other, the fibro-cartilaginous substances,
such as those that are between the vertebræ, those in the middle of
some articulations, &c. As this last is a compound of the fibrous and
cartilaginous system, I shall not treat of it until I have spoken of
the fibrous system.
By thus limiting the sense of the word cartilage, it gives us the idea
of a hard, elastic, white substance, having an inorganic appearance,
though it has a real organization. We find this animal substance in
different parts of the body; it is met with especially, 1st, at the
articular extremities of the moveable bones; 2d, on the articular
surfaces of the immoveable bones; 3d, on the parietes of certain
cavities, which it contributes in great measure to form; such are the
cartilages of the nasal partition, of the ribs, the larynx, &c. Hence
three different classes, which exhibit varieties in their forms, in
their organization, &c.