GENERAL ANATOMY OF THE MUSCLES. 351 



with each other, and merely separated by a thin lamina of eel* 

 lular substance. The fasciculi are again subdivisible into fibres, 

 which from their smallness are not appreciable to the naked 

 eye, and even when examined with powerful microscopes seem 

 to admit of an endless division. On this account some anato- 

 mists have undertaken to classify the fasciculi under the terms 

 of first, second, and third orders. It is evident, however, thai 

 this arrangement is too arbitrary to be needful, and that the 

 circumstance is sufficiently expressed by considering the fasci- 

 culi as indefinitely divisable. The fibrous arrangement of 

 muscles is rendered still more distinct by boiling them, or by 

 immersing them in alcohol. 



The structure of the muscular fibre has been studied with 

 great attention by microscopical observers. From such ob- 

 servations, it appears that their ultimate shape is prismatic, 

 pentagonal, or hexagonal. According to Prochaska, every 

 fibre extends the whole length of the muscle, considering this 

 length as represented by the tendinous beginning on the one 

 hand, and the tendinous termination on the other. This ar- 

 rangement holds even in regard to the longest muscles, as the 

 sartorius^ 



The most approved accounts, of modern times, of the ulti- 

 mate structure of muscular fibre, are those of Mr. Bauer; with 

 Sir Everard Home, and of MM. Prevost and Dumas. These 

 gentlemen concur in stating that the results have been uniform 

 in all animals to which their observations have been extended. 

 That the muscular fibre is a series of globules, resembling the 

 globules of the blood deprived of colouring matter and adhering 

 in a line to each other. That the medium of adhesion is invi- 

 sible from its transparency and want of colour; but if the mus- 

 cle be macerated in water frequently changed, that this medium, 

 from its greater solubility and more ready putrefaction, may be 

 removed so as to leave the globules detached from each other, 

 and still resembling the globules of the blood. The fact of the 

 globular condition of the muscular fibre was first pointed out 

 by Leuwenhoek and Hook ; it is also confirmed by the testi- 

 mony of Mr. Milne Edwards and M. Dutrochet. The evidence 

 of their size is very unsettled ; it is stated at from one diameter 

 to one-seventh of the diameter of a globule of blood, the latter 



