THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM. 201 



not actually been observed in the fasciculi in certain cases, it 

 might have been a question, whether muscles in general did 

 possess lymphatics at all ; the occurrence of the deep lymphatic 

 vessels proves nothing towards this, it being quite possible that 

 the contents of these vessels, scanty as they are, might be 

 derived from the skin (cola manus, plant a pedis, &c.), from 

 the joints, or perhaps from the bones. It may also be con- 

 cluded, that if a few lymphatics really exist in the larger 

 muscles, they do not run among the secondary fasciculi, but 

 only in the more vascular perimysium between the larger and 

 more lax subdivisions, and especially where the latter contains 

 adipose tissue, and is consequently soft, as, for instance, in the 

 gluteus, and in the superficial layers of the muscles. 



Lymphatic vessels have never yet been noticed in tendons, 

 fasciae, and the synovial capsules of the muscular system. At 

 the same time, it cannot be said, at all events in the latter 

 instance, that lymphatics may not, as in other serous mem- 

 branes, be contained in the sub-serous connective tissue. 



§ 84. 



Nerves of Muscles. — The distribution of the muscular nerves, 

 with respect even to their coarser relations, presents consider- 

 able peculiarity, it being evident, in most muscles, that the 

 nerves come in contact with their fibres only at a few limited 

 points, and are by no means connected with them throughout 

 their entire length. With respect to the ultimate termination 

 of the nerves, it may be stated, that in all muscles there exist 

 anastomoses of the smaller branches, forming the so termed 

 " plexuses." These anastomoses among the larger branches are 

 seen chiefly, if not altogether, where the entire ramification of 

 the nerves takes place within an extremely limited compass 

 (vid. note) ; elsewhere they rarely occur, or are wholly absent. 

 Those between the smaller and smallest branches (terminal 

 j)leocuses Valentin), on the other hand, are very numerous every- 

 where, forming elongated roundish meshes, which run for the 

 most part parallel with the longitudinal direction of the fasciculi. 

 These terminal plexuses, composed, sometimes of smaller, some- 

 times of larger meshes, and formed principally by the ramules of 

 one small branch, though not altogether i&olated one from the 

 other, proceed to form what arc termed by Valentin the terminal 



