66 ELEMENTS OF HISTOLOGY. [Chap. ix. 



twice or thrice as long as they are broad, and at the 

 same time branched at their extremities. 



Non-striped muscular tissue is richly supplied with 

 blood-vessels, the capillaries forming oblong meshes, 

 though their number is not so great as in striped 

 muscle. The nerves of non-striped muscle are all 

 derived from the sympathetic ; their distribution and 

 termination will be described in a future chapter. 



CHAPTER IX. 



STRIPED MUSCULAR TISSUE. 



82. THIS tissue is composed of extremely long (up 

 to l|-2 inches) more or less cylindrical fibres, of a 

 diameter varying between ^-^ to -g-^j- of an inch ; they 

 appear transversely striated. These are the stripefi 

 muscular fibres. They are held together by delicate 

 bundles of fibrous connective tissue, with the ordinary 

 connective tissue cells endomysium so as to form 

 larger or smaller bundles ; these again are aggregated 

 together by stronger bands and septa of fibrous con- 

 nective tissue perimysium into groups, and these 

 into the fascicles or divisions of an anatomical muscle. 

 The fibrous connective tissue, including the perimysium 

 tissue, is the carrier of the larger vascular and nervous 

 branches. The endomysium contains the capillaries, 

 which form very rich networks with elongated meshes, 

 and are always situated between the individual 

 muscle fibres. The capillaries and veins appear very 

 wavy and twisted in the contracted bundles, and 

 straighter in the uncontracted bundles. The small 

 vessels are provided here and there with peculiar saccu- 

 lar dilatations, which act as a sort of safety receptacles 



