They are met with in general in almost all the moveable articulations, and especially upon their sides; hence the name of lateral ligaments by which most of them are designated. Some however are foreign to the articulations, as we see an example in that extending from the coracoid to the acromion process, in those which complete the different osseous fissures, the orbitary for example. These organs form fasciæ sometimes round, sometimes flat, fixed to, or rather intermixed with the periosteum by their two extremities, easily removed with it in childhood, holding to the bone in the adult by the ossification of the internal layers of this membrane. Their analogy with the tendons is very striking; the external difference is that they hold to the periosteum at both sides, whilst on one side the tendons are contiguous with the muscles. We see sometimes that the same organ is a tendon at one age, and a ligament at another. This arrangement is remarkable in the inferior ligament of the patella. Yet there are, as we have remarked, differences of composition between them. All result from an assemblage of fibres parallel in the middle, diverging at the extremities, united by a cellular texture more loose than that of the tendons, and which often contains some fatty flakes. This substance is sometimes so abundant in them, that they have an appearance analogous to that of the fatty muscles; I have made this observation on the ligaments of the knee, in a subject elsewhere very thin. There are some blood vessels in the ligaments. In certain diseases of the articulations, their vascular system is developed in a very remarkable manner, and they are penetrated by a great quantity of blood; no nerve is discoverable in them. Sometimes the ligamentary texture is changed into a matter like lard, in which every kind of fibre disappears, which rarely returns to its primitive state, and which is met with almost always in organic affections, fatal to the patient. The ligaments unite strongly the osseous surfaces, prevent their displacement, and yet allow easy motions; a double function which they perform in virtue of a double property, of their resistance on the one part, of their softness and flexibility on the other; sometimes externally, they serve for some muscular insertions. II. _Of Ligaments with Irregular Fasciæ._ These are irregular fibres scattered here and there upon the osseous surfaces, without any order, intermixed in different directions between the sacrum and the ilium, upon the summit of the acromion, &c. We see many of these fibres, around some of the moveable articulations; much cellular texture separates them. They cannot offer any general views.