Within the bony encasement of the skull and vertebral column, the CNS is surrounded by three concentric, connective tissue coverings called meninges (from Greek word meninx for “membrane”), which act to support and stabilize the brain and spinal cord. The focus of this section will be on the cranial meninges. The spinal meninges, which have a slightly different configuration, will be discussed in the “Spinal Cord” section.