22. Ligaments or any soft tissue, when put under even a moderate degress of tension, if that tension is unremitting, will elongate by the addition of new material; on the contrary, when ligaments or other soft tissues remain uninterruptedly in a loose or lax state, they will gradually shorten as the effete material is removed, until they come to maintain the same relationship to the bony structures, with which they are united, that they did before their shortnening.