PART III. 

 MYOLOGY. 



CHAPTER VII. 



GENERAL ANATOMY OF MUSCLES.* 



That soft, fibrous, red-colored substance, wbich constitutes 

 so large a proportion of the volume of the more perfect ani- 

 mals, is called Flesh or Muscle. 



By the contraction of this substance, the spontaneous mo- 

 tions of animals are produced ; and, on this account the fibres 

 which compose it have long been regarded with particular 

 attention. 



Muscular fibres are not only arranged in those regular 

 masses on the trunk and limbs of the body, which are so fami- 

 liar to us by the name of muscles, but they also exist in some 

 of the most important viscera, and produce the internal, as well 

 as the external motions of animals. 



— Muscles have been divided in man, and the superior ani- 

 mals, into two classes. The ^rs^ class consists of those which 

 produce the external motions of the body, and are placed 

 exteriorly ; these contract under the influence of the will, are 

 the agents by which are executed the animal or voluntary func- 

 tions which place the animal in relation with the exterior 

 world, and are called the muscles of animal life, muscles of the 

 life of relation, voluntary muscles, etc. These form by far the 

 largest portion of the whole mass, and are attached in general, 

 by one or both extremities to the skeleton. They are solid, 



* Muscles were first named according to their figure and situation, in 1587, 

 by Jacques Dubois, surnamed Sylvius, a member of the Faculty of Medicine, in 

 Paris. — H. 



