BLOOD-VESSELS. 



and others working under his direction, and for the details of these investigations 

 the reader is referred to the papers on this subject which are quoted in the 

 Bibliography at the end of this chapter. 



Mode of attachment of muscular fibres : ending of muscle in tendon. 



"When a muscle ends in a tendon it is found that the muscular fibres either run in 

 the same direction as the tendon-bundles or join with the tendon at an acute angle. 

 In the former case the tendon becomes subdivided, either gradually or suddenly, 

 into as many small bundles as there are fibres in the end of the muscle, and it often 

 seems at first sight as if the tendon-fibres were directly continued into the muscular 

 substance. In reality, however, the fibres of each tendon-bundle end abruptly on 

 reaching the rounded or obliquely truncated extremity of a muscular fibre (fig. 343), 



Fig. 343. TERMINATION OP A MUSCULAR FIBRE IN TENDON. 

 (Ranvier. ) 



m, sarcolemma ; s, the same membrane passing over the end of 

 the fibre ; p, extremity of muscular substance, c, retracted from 

 the lower end of the sarcolemma- tube ; t, tendon-bundle passing 

 to be fixed to the sarcolemma. 



and are so intimately united to the prolongation of 

 sarcolemma which covers the extremity, as to render 

 the separation between the two difficult if not impos- 

 sible (Ranvier). The muscular substance, on the 

 other hand, may readily be caused to retract from the 

 sarcolemraa at this point. The areolar tissue which 

 lies between the tendon-bundles, passes between the 

 ends of the muscular fibres and is gradually lost in 

 the interstitial connective tissue of the muscle. 



When the direction of the muscular fibres is oblique 

 to that of the tendon, the connection takes place in a 

 similar way to that above described, but the small 

 tendon-bundles are given off laterally along the course 

 of the tendon, which in these cases is generally pro- 

 longed into or over the muscle. 



When the muscular fibres divide, each branch of 

 the fibre is described as being directly continuous 

 with a tendon-bundle, or connective tissue bundle, 



without the intervention of sarcolemma, but it is not improbable that renewed 

 careful investigation might, in this case also, disclose the existence of a thin 

 prolongation of sarcolemma over the divisions. 



Blood-vessels. The blood-vessels of the muscular tissue are very abundant, so 

 that, when they are successfully filled with coloured injection, the fleshy part of the 

 muscle contrasts strongly with its tendons. The arteries, accompanied by their 

 associate veins, enter the muscle at various points, and divide into branches : these 

 pass along the fasciculi, crossing over them, and dividing more and more as they get 

 between the finer divisions of the muscle ; at length, penetrating the smallest 

 fasciculi, they end in capillary vessels, which run between the fibres. The vessels 

 are supported in their progress by the sub-divisions of the sheath of the muscle, to 

 which also they supply capillaries. The capillaries destined for the proper tissue of 

 the muscle are extremely small ; they form among the fibres a fine net-work, with 

 narrow oblong meshes (fig. 344), which are stretched out in the direction of the 

 fibres ; in other words, they consist of longitudinal and transverse vessels, the former 

 running parallel with the muscular fibres, and lying in the angular intervals between 

 them, the latter, which are much shorter, crossing between the longitudinal ones, 

 and passing over or under the intervening fibres. 



VOL. I. X 



