We find on all the non-articular cartilages a membrane exactly
analogous to the periosteum, and which is called perichondrium. The
larynx, the ribs, &c. exhibit it in a very evident manner; it is
delicate, with fibres interlaced in all directions, less closely
united to the organs it covers, than the periosteum is to the bones,
because the cartilages having on their surface less numerous foramina,
it does not send to them as many fibrous elongations; hence a less
intimate relation between the life of the perichondrium and that of the
cartilage, than between that of the bone and its periosteum.
I have twice in a young dog removed from the thyroid its external
membrane, and closed the wound immediately, which has been cured
without apparent alteration in the organization of the cartilage; at
least it has continued to perform its functions. The same experiment
might easily be made on the cartilages of the ribs; I have not
attempted it. The perichondrium has appeared to me in many injections
to contain fewer blood vessels than the periosteum; its uses are
analogous to those of this last membrane.