On the articular cartilage / by Alex. Ogston.
- Ogston, Alexander, Sir, 1844-1929.
- Date:
- [1876?]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: On the articular cartilage / by Alex. Ogston. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.
5/40 page 53
![(Fig. 4, g) to of au inch long and to ^-J^ of an inch broad, and acquire.at the same time a much greater magnitude than they previously possessed. That the alterations in the two structures are identical in their nature is evident from the fact that in some places appearances exactly similar may be met with in each. The next point to be examined is the boundary line where articular cartilage passes into bone. The determination of what happens here is the central point of the whole question. It is not easy to obtain sections which show satisfactorily the changes that take place. The process I have found most satis- factory is to decalcify the bones by soaking them some weeks in dilute chromic acid acidulated with nitric acid, then wash them from the acids, make sections perpendicular to the surface of the bone by the razor or Rutherford's microtome, and tint ■with logwood. Sections thus obtained show the existence, be- tween the cartilage presenting the appearances above described and the bone, of a zone of altered cartilage (Fig. 6, c to i) to of an inch in thickness, marked off from the rest of the cartilage by a deeply-stained border forming an undulating line. In this zone the hyaline matrix is more pellucid and takes on a different, generally fainter, tint when acted on by- staining solutions, than that further removed from the bone. The ceUs imbedded in it reach their maximum of proliferation, and often tend to form groups more rounded (Fig. 6, d) or less arranged in rows than before. The margin of the bone forms a slightly uneven line (Fig. 1, d) Fig. 2, g; Fig. 6, i) dotted at intervals by small rounded prominences (Fig. 2, d] Fig. 6, e and /) projecting into the zone of altered cartilage for a distance of from to of an inch, and exhibiting at their bases a cor- responding breadth. The number of the prominences bears a distinct proportion to the number of groups of cartilage-cells in their vicinity; they seem to correspond in position with them and complete as it were the harmony of their an-angement, and point besides in a direction corresponding with that of the long groups of cartilage-cells. They vary much in distinctness in different sections, but are always present, and their arrange- ment is suggestive of their being somehow related to the car- tilage-groups. This arrangement is not fortuitous. In favour- able sections it can be seen that on the group of cartilage-cells](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21481039_0005.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)


