CAPSULE (from the

See also:

• LAT

Lat. capsula, a small

See also:

• BOX
• BOX (Gr. irl or, Lat. buxus, box-wood; cf. 2r6Eir, a pyx)

box)  , a term in botany for a dry seed vessel, as in the poppy, iris, foxglove, &c., containing one or more cells . When ripe the capsule opens and scatters the seed (see BOTANY) . The word is used also for a small gelatinous case enclosing a dose of medicine, and for a metal cap or cover on bottles and jars . In anatomy the term is used to denote a cover or envelope partly or wholly surrounding a structure . Every diarthrodial joint possesses a fibrous or ligamentous capsule, lined with synovial membrane, attached to the adjacent ends of the articulating bones . The term is particularly applied to the sac which encloses the crystalline lens of the eye; to Glisson's capsule, a thin areolar coat of fibrous tissue lying inside the tunica serosa of the liver; to the glomerular capsules in the kidney substance; to the suprarenal capsules, two small flattened organs in the epigastric region; and to the internal and external capsules of the brain (see BRAIN, fig . 14 and explanation) .