ADJUNCTS OF THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM. 99 



wing of birds, in the wing of the bat, etc.). These parts, 

 however, do not require to be frequently renewed, whence the 

 great difference between the connective tissue of old and 

 young people, and the stiffness in motion and frequent fract- 

 ures which we observe among the former: 



Fig. 25. Elements of connective tissue: connective and elastic fibres.* 



The tendons are, in a mechanical point of view, only soft 

 and flexible processes or simply appendnges. Their use is to 

 enlarge the surface of the bones, so as to admit of the inser- 

 tion of a greater number of fibres. Whenever one of these 

 processes is in danger of becoming too .long, and by its con- 

 sistency and its position would interfere with the mechanism 

 of any member, it beomes a tendon. We find certain 

 processes, the styloid processes, for instance, which is some- 



* a, Connective fibre^ ^having pome embiyonic'^lohulep. $ J^ft st ' c fibres, 

 with their anastomoses a-u 1 flivisipiis. c, Curly elastic /fibre^ (like Jiorse-hair in 

 a mattress). </, Nuclei of celis, vith niu-ledi/takien und^r fhe, pectoral muscle. 

 320 diam. (Todd,acd -Bowman, u The Physiological Anatomy of Man/ 1 Lon- 

 don, 1815, p. 7 ; :,. *,; ^%; ; ,^ ,-, : 



