VOLUNTAEY MUSCLES. 



453 



FIG. 16. 



tirely confirmed this view ; and the separation into disks is 



now pretty generally regarded as artificial. 



When we come to 

 the question of the real 

 anatomical element of 

 the muscular tissue, 

 there are only two 

 reasonable yiews that 

 present themselves. 

 One is that all subdi- 

 vision of the primitive 

 fasciculus is artificial, 

 and that it, with its 

 investing membrane, 

 the sarcolemma, is the 

 true element. An ar- 

 gument in favor of 



Voluntary muscular fibre*. A. Transverse striae and tlllS Opinion IS that 

 nuclei of a primitive fasciculus (maeuified 250 di- 

 ameters); B. Longitudinal stria? and fibrillse of a flip tissue is lllOSt read- 

 primitive fasciculus in which the sarcolemma has l 



been lacerated at one point by pressure. (SAPPET, 1]^ ipnirfltpfl into "Pni- 

 Traite d'anatomie, Paris, 1868, tome it, p. 22.) 



ciculi, each enclosed in 



its own membrane, and not penetrated by vessels, nerves, 

 or lymphatics ; while the fibrillae are situated in a reticulum 

 of canals, from which they cannot readily be isolated. The 

 other opinion, that the fibrillse are the ultimate elements, is 

 based on the fact that these little fibres present the striae and 

 all the anatomical characteristics of the primitive fasciculi, 

 and that by far the most natural and easy mode of separa- 

 tion of these fasciculi is in a longitudinal direction. The 

 question of adopting one or the other of these views is not 

 of very great physiological importance. 



Fibrous and Adipose Tissue in the Voluntary Muscles. 

 -The structure of the muscles strikingly illustrates the re- 

 lations between the principal and the accessory anatomical 

 elements of tissues. The characteristic or principal element 



