502 PHILOSOPHICAL TllANSACTlONS. [aNNO J 721. 



spongy fleshy substance. From which particular, and the woman having had 

 two children during the time that this large mass lay in her, he conjectures 

 that it was not lodged in the womb, but in the left Falloppian tube, which by 

 this means had been very much dilated and thickened in its substance. 



Observations on the Membranes inclosing the Fasciculi of Fibres, into which a 

 Muscle is divided. By Mr. Leuwenhoeck, F. R. S. N° 367, p. 129. 



In cutting off several thin slices from a ptece of beef, whenever I cut the 

 fleshy fibres though transversely, I could plainly discover the membrane, as it 

 is commonly called, which runs between and envelopes the fleshy fibres, and 

 especially the larger fasciculi of them, as they run lengthwise along the muscle. 

 Between these fasciculi the membrane is of a considerable thickness, but spreads 

 out every way into ramifications exceedingly small. This membrane is com- 

 posed of an inconceivable number of very minute vessels, plainly to be discerned, 

 not only where the membrane appeared of some considerable breadth, but even 

 where it was not so broad as a single muscular fibre; but how far this held I 

 could not determine, as these small ramifications of the membrane again spread 

 themselves into other ramifications so exceedingly fine, especially where they 

 inclosed the single muscular fibres, that they were in a manner invisible even 

 through my best microscopes. 



The very small vessels which compose this membrane, as it is called, are 

 doubtless framed to convey some nutritious juices, yet they are so small, that 

 the globules of blood cannot pass through them. 



ABCD, fig. 13, pi. 13, represents a small piece of the membrane, which with 

 the adjoining fleshy parts, is cut through transversely, and as it was impossible 

 to draw the extraordinary number of vessels which composed it, on account of 

 their exceeding minuteness, they are represented only by points; epg and hi 

 represent the carnous fibres cut through transversely along with the membranes. 

 These carnous fibres, when moist, lay so close to each other, that the space 

 between efg and hi was quite filled up; but when dried, the fibres were so 

 shrunk, that one might observe such spaces between them, as in the figure. 



Now as we see, on the drying of the membranes afg and deg, with the 

 muscular fibres between them, what a number of small ramifications proceed 

 from the membranes, as is here represented between the muscular fibres, we 

 must not imagine that these ramifications proceed only from the points here 

 represented, but that they are continued the whole length of the fibres, and 

 subdividing into still finer ramifications, they inclose every single fibre in the 

 whole muscle. 



Among several pieces of flesh, where the carnous fibres were cut transversely. 



