HEART OF BIMAXA. 



529 



409 



R'A 



Superficial auricular fibres. CLXXXVIII". 



410 



veins, P, p. Like the muscular fibres of the tongue, those of the 

 heart are not visibly connected together by areolar tissue ; such 

 connective medium, in the degree in which it may exist, can only 

 be inferred through the 

 help to unravelling gained 

 by boiling the heart. The 

 more obvious mode of 

 connection is, as in the 

 tongue, by reciprocal de- 

 cussation or interlocking. 

 In the ventricles the 

 longer external fibres, 

 e. g., wind upward round 

 the apex and bend down- 

 ward from the auricular 

 and arterial rings at the 

 base, to become internal, and so inclose, and, at the same time 

 contribute to form, the shorter, interposed loops ; these, like- 

 wise, having similar relations to the layers of fibres which they 

 successively inclose. 

 Evidence of a stra- 

 tified disposition is, 

 however, progres- 

 sively narrowed, or 

 shown by smaller 

 tracts of conforma- 

 ble course of fibres, 

 as these are removed 

 in dissection from 

 without inward. 



In the superficial 

 ventricular layer 

 they have a sub- 

 spiral course, de- 



scending, in the fore 

 part of the ventri- 

 cles, fig. 410, to the 

 left, and on the back 

 part to the right, being partially interrupted at the interventri- 

 cular grooves, of which the anterior is shown at d. Those which 

 cross the groove bridge over the coronary vessels ; those which 

 penetrate it curve upward and contribute to the right layer of the 

 septum, and so help to encompass the right ventricle. The snper- 



VOL. III. M M 



Superficial ventricular fibres ; front view, ci.xxxvn". 



