THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM. 



249 



Kg 07. 





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angle, as in the instance of the penniform muscles. Tlie 

 microscopic conditions in these two cases, are 

 widely different. In the former, the muscular 

 fasciculi pass immediately into those of the ten- 

 don, in such a way that no sharply defined 

 limit exists between the two tissues, and the en- 

 tire fasciculus of muscular fibrils is continuous 

 with a nearly equal- sized bundle of tendinous 

 fibrils (fig. 97). Extraordinary as it may 

 sound, I must say, — in order to describe the 

 impression that this sort of conjunction of 

 muscle and tendon gives me, — that it is that 

 of a continuous connection of the muscular and 

 tendinous fibrils. Where the muscular fasciculi 

 join the tendons and aponeuroses at an acute 

 angle, we find, — in complete contrast with the 

 condition just described, — an abrupt limit be- 

 tween the muscle and tendon (fig. 98). For 

 in this case, the fibres of the muscle really end, 

 for the most part, obliquely truncated, with a 

 slightly conical projecting terminal surface, or, 

 more rarely, perceptibly attenuated, though 

 always rounded, and are attached at a more 

 or less acute angle 

 to the surfaces of 

 the tendons and 

 aponeuroses, and on 

 the borders -of the 

 former. Notwith- 

 standing this, how- 

 ever, the connection 

 between the two 

 tissues is of the most intimate kind. The extremities of the 



Fig. 97. A primitive fasciculus : a, from one of the internal intercostal muscles of 

 Man, continuous into a tendinous fasciculus, b, into which it passes without any de- 

 fined limit, x 350 diam. 



Fig. 98. Disposition of the muscular fibres, at their oblique insertion into the 

 tendon of the gastrocnemius (Man), x 350 diam.: a, a portion of the tendon cut 

 longitudinally; b, muscular fibres with slightly conical or truncated extremities, 

 affixed in small depressions on the inner aspect of the tendon, to the border of which 

 the perimysium internum, c, is connected. 



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