The Muscles 117 



To the sternum as to the ribs is only a small 

 part of this muscle attached. 



Between the two above described muscles is 

 found a space which is filled, in great part, with a 

 fibrous membrane that binds the two muscles 

 together. This membrane begins very thin and 

 without a marked boundary behind the kidneys ; it 

 runs forward directly under them and the dorsal 

 wall of the body, becoming gradually thicker, though 

 never very thick, and fuses, laterad to the kidneys, 

 with the above-mentioned aponeurosis of the two 

 diaphragmaticus muscles. Thence this aponeuro- 

 sis goes to the upper, hinder side of the liver where 

 it becomes fairly thick. One thus finds in front 

 of the stomach a fibrous membrane, belonging to 

 the diaphragmaticus, which is pierced by the 

 oesophagus and by a fairly large space that extends 

 around the oesophagus and between it and the 

 liver. This membrane fastens the liver to the 

 oesophagus. 



The muscle of the right side is covered, on almost 

 its entire inner surface (from its hinder end to the 

 liver) by the belly-like skin, and is fairly closely 

 united with it. The left muscle, on the other hand, 

 is only covered by this skin from the hinder border 

 of the stomach forwards; farther forward it lies 

 immediately on the under and left side of the stom- 

 ach and is united with it by loose connective-tissue. 

 Outwardly both muscles are united by a thin layer 

 of connective-tissue to the true abdominal muscles. 



