VESSELS OF MUSCLE. 



cxxiii 



Mr. Ellis dees not confirm Professor Kolliker's account of the oblique 

 mode of attachment. He states that, iu such instances as the gastro- 

 cnemius and soleus, every fibre is provided with its separate tendon and is 

 continuous with it as above described, and that the increasing thickness of 

 the main tendon from above downwards is due to successive additions, in 

 the form of strata, of the contributing tendons from the lower placed layers of 

 muscular fibres ; and this explanation is supported by subsequent obser- 

 vations of Fick, Margo, and Frey. In attaching themselves to the skin 

 and mucous membranes, the muscular fibres, according to the careful descrip- 

 tion of Dr. Salter, divide into pointed processes or fine filaments which are 

 continuous with those of the connective tissue. 



Blood-vessels. The blood-vessels of the muscular tissue are extremely 

 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 



Fig. LXVIII. 



Fig. LXVIII. CAPILLARY VESSELS OF MUSCLE, 

 FROM AN INJECTION BY LIEBERKUHN, SEEN 

 WITH A LOW MAGNIFYING POWER. 



The specimen was preserved in spirits ; when 

 the muscle is dried, the vessels appear much 

 closer. 



associate veins, enter the muscle 

 at various points, and divide 

 into branches ; these pass 

 among the fasciculi, crossing 

 over them, and dividing more 

 and more as they get between 

 the finer divisions of the mus- 

 cle ; at length, penetrating the 

 smallest fasciculi, they end in 

 capillary vessels which run be- 

 tween the fibres. The vessels 

 are supported in their progress 

 by the subdivisions 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 (fig. LXVIII.), they form 

 among the fibres a fine network, with narrow oblong meshes, 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. 



None of the capillary vessels enter the sarcolemma or proper sheath of the fibre, 

 and the nutritious fluid which they convey must therefore reach the finer elements of 

 the muscle by imbibition. Moreover, as the capillaries do not penetrate the fibres, 

 but lie between them, their number in a given space, or their degree of closeness, will 

 in some measure be regulated by the number and consequently by the size of the 

 fibres ; and accordingly in the muscles of different animals it is found that, when the 

 fibres are small, the vessels are numerous and form a close network, and vice versd : 

 in other words, the smaller the fibres, the greater is the quantity of blood supplied to 

 the same bulk of muscle. In conformity with this, we see that in birds and mam- 

 malia, in which the process of nutrition is active, and where the rapid change 

 requires a copious supply of material, the muscular fibres are much smaller and 

 the vessels more numerous than in cold-blooded animals, in which the opposite con- 

 ditions prevail. 



Lymphatics. Of lymphatic vessels in the muscular tissue nothing certain 

 is known. From an examination of the lymphatics which appear to proceed 



