346 THE SOLIDS. 



UNION OF MUSCLE WITH TENDON. 



The unstrlped muscular fibrilla is rarely if ever attached 

 to tendon or aponeurosis : the striped fibre, on the contrary, 

 is almost constantly so. 



Two errors have prevailed in reference to the union of the 

 striated muscular fibre with tendon. 



The first has reference to the form of the extremity of the 

 fibre in connexion with the tendon; the second to the precise 

 mode of junction between the two. 



Thus most observers have described and figured the fibre 

 as terminating in a conical point, from which the fibres of 

 the fibrous tissue of the tendon proceed in a straight line. 



This description is contrary to fact, both as respects the 

 form of the fibre and its mode of union with the tendon : 

 muscular fibre is rarely, if ever inserted vertically into a 

 tendon or aponeurosis ; but in all the instances which have 

 fallen under my observation, the insertion has been either 

 oblique or occasionally at right angles with the tendon ; the 

 extremity of the fibre being in the one case also oblique, and 

 in the other truncate : this termination is the very opposite 

 of that usually attributed to it. Let us next see in what 

 way the two structures are unite.d. In no one instance have 

 I ever seen the fibres of the fibrous tissue of the tendon 

 unite themselves directly with the muscular fibre: on the 

 contrary, the mode of junction has always been effected in 

 the following manner : the sheath of each fibre is prolonged 

 upon the surface of the tendon where the union is oblique, 

 and certain of the fibres of the tendon are extended upon and 

 interlace with the terminal portions of the muscular fibres 

 and their investing sheaths. (See Plate XLII. fig. 4.) 



MUSCULAR CONTRACTION. 



Many attempts have been made to determine the exact 

 changes which the muscular fibre undergoes in its passage to 



