OF THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM IN GENERAL. 433 



organ. About two months after conception, the muscles of the 

 skeleton have acquired distinct fibres; towards the fourth 

 month they begin to execute contractions. According to Bi- 

 chat, the muscles of the foetus possess a smaller degree of irri- 

 tability, or at least less galvanic susceptibility, than that of 

 individuals who have respired. Experiments made by Meckel 

 on some animals have offered results contradictory to those 

 of Bichat. 



During childhood the muscles continue small in volume in 

 proportion to the nerves and adipose tissue. At this age too, 

 the muscular flesh is not only less red, but is more gelatinous 

 and less fibrinous than in adult age; the motions are easy, 

 prompt and feeble. 



The muscles, which are of a vermilion red in the adult, be- 

 come pale, yellowish and livid in old age; contractions at this 

 period become difficult, feeble and slow. 



The irritability and action of the muscles in females, com- 

 pared with those in males, present nearly the same difference 

 as those of the adolescent compared with those of the adult: 

 that is, a greater degree of irritability or susceptibility of move- 

 ment, a weaker action and less capable of a continued action. 



Between the races of mankind there exist differences in 

 muscular power, which, according to the experiments made 

 by Peron with the dynamometer, is in favour of Europeans, 

 whose health and strength are the result of abundant and 

 wholesome diet and habitual occupation, while the inhabitants 

 of Timor, New Holland, and Van-Diemen*s Land, exposed 

 as they are to every kind of privation, have less muscular 

 strength. 



696. When the muscles are exposed to view* by a wound 

 of the skin, the aponeurosis and the cellular sheaths, and these 

 parts, are brought together again with precision, there occurs 

 in the solution of continuity an effusion of organizable fluid; 

 at first slightly adherent to the muscle and afterwards esta- 

 blishing an organic reunion. The same thing happens when 



* B. Fr Schnell, Prass. Auter rieth, de natura reunionis musculorum vol- 



neratorufii. Tubings, 1804. 



