TENDONS. 



121 



smaller and larger divisions (bundles, fasciculi) are 

 offered to the view. 



On magnifying the object, an internal arrangement is 

 shown almost exactly corresponding to that which we 

 have observed in the semi-lunar cartilages. Externally, 

 the tendon is invested in its whole circumference by a 

 fibrous mass, in which the vessels are contained, that are 

 entwined around the tendon. From these at different 

 points vessels proceed into the interior, where they are 

 to be seen in the larger partitions which separate the 

 fasciculi (Fig. 37, a) ; but into the interior of the fasci- 

 culi themselves no trace of a vessel enters, any more 

 than it does into the interior of the semi-lunar cartilages ; 

 there, on the contrary, we again meet with the network 

 of cells we have been talking about, or, in other words, 

 the peculiar system of juice-conveying canals of which 

 we lately considered the import in bone. 



Tendons may therefore in the first place be divided 

 into larger (primary) bundles, and these in their turn 

 into a certain number of smaller (secondary) fasciculi, 

 which are separated by broadish bands of a fibrous sub- 

 stance containing vessels and fibre-cells, so that a trans- 

 verse section of a tendon presents a meshed appearance. 

 From this intervening substance, which must not, how- 

 ever, be regarded as a tissue of a peculiar description, 

 there pass into the interior of the fasciculi stellate cells 

 (tendon-corpuscles) which anastomose with another and 

 establish a communication between the external vascular, 

 and the internal non-vascular, parts of the fasciculi. 

 This relation is, of course, much more evident in the 

 tendons of children than in those of adults. The older 

 the parts become, namely, the larger and finer do the 

 processes of the cells in general become, so that in many 

 sections we do not meet with the real bodies of the cells, 

 but only see minute speck , which, by altering the focus, 



