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nective tissue, the so-called muscular fascia of the M. levator ani, 
lines the muscular bottom of the pelvis; that, however, the frontal 
extensions, which do not undergo any pressure, gradually fade away 
in the subperitoneal connective tissue. 
My starting-point then was the fundamental idea of OMBREDANNE’s 
reasoning, which runs as follows: “.... que les vaisseaux ne sont 
nulle part libres entre deux feuillets fibreux, on entre un plan fibreux, 
et un plan périostique; si l’on arrive a les isoler, a les disséquer, 
comme on dit, c'est a l'aide du tranchant d’un scalpel”... “Nous 
avons dit, que nous ne croyons pas les vaisseaux inclus libres entre 
deux feuillets dans une gaine, mois plongés dans l’epaisseur d’une 
lame: la formation de ces lames est la consequence méme de la 
formation du tissu conjonctif. Ce tissu est essentiellement un tissu 
de remplissage, de soutien; mais il n'existe que la, où il soutient 
quelque chose’... “Lorsque une artere s’épanouit en un éventail 
de branches, disposées dans un méme plan, il constitue a cette 
-artere et à ses branches une lame vasculaire, qui pourra s’infléchir, 
dont partiront des lames secondaires.”’ 
It was an investigation on a totally different basis which by 
chance, as it were, led me in the direction of OMBREDANNE’S con- 
ception of which | had some cognizance through Trsrur and Jacos’s 
work. But for the very reason that the results of this investigation 
compelled me to follow the general principle of OmBREDANNE’s con- 
ception, | feel inclined to preface the publication of those results 
with a few theoretical considerations. 
In the year 1919 Fransen of Leyden wrote a thesis in which 
the significance of the fasciae for the bloodstream in the venae was 
emphatically brought forward. As shown by him: ‘over the whole 
length of the lower extremities there exist formations of which the 
principal components are fasciae connected with muscles; formations, 
which guard the large venae and the arteriae from compression, 
and through their relation to the environment can perform the 
function of a suction-apparatus, by which the venous circulation of 
the blood and the continuous supply of arterial blood is guaranteed 
and promoted. Theorically as well as practically (with regard to 
the pathogenesis and the therapy of the varices) FRANsEN’s clear 
exposition is no doubt of great value. It seems to me that he has 
hit the nail on the head in his roughly worded conclusion quoted 
above. Still, I presume to raise an objection to the details of his 
exposition, however cautiously they may have been laid before us. 
Among the instances prefixed by FRANSEN to the conclusion just 
quoted, we distinguish two groups of different nature. On the one 
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