MUSCLE MOVEM1 \ PS 



a thin, usually transparent slu-atli lor the whole muscle. Each 

 fasciculus consists of a bundle of muscle fibres, running 

 longitudinally, also bound together by fine connective tissue. 

 Kach individual muscle fibre 

 is surrounded by a trans- 

 parent elastic sheath called 

 the sarcolemma. If the 

 muscle is one which ends in 

 a tendon, as the muscle nar- 

 rows the fasciculi and muscle 

 fibres gradually end, while 

 the connective tissue between 

 them becomes intimately 

 bound up with, and contri- 

 butes in forming, the fibrous Flc - 9 Fasciculi of striated muscle cut 

 tissue of the tendon. The 



, ... Several fasciculi/, bound together into larger 



muscle hbres are about an fasciculi to make up the muscle, 



inch in length, and lie longi- 

 tudinally, dovetailed into one another along the length of the 



fasciculus. Examined micro- 

 scopically, each fibre shows 

 t light bands alternating with 

 dark bands running across it. 

 s These bands give it a striated 

 appearance, so that this kind 

 of muscle is called striated 

 muscle. Along the fibre just 

 under the sarcolemma are 

 several long oval nuclei. If a 

 single muscle fibre is finely 

 teased with needles, it can be 

 frayed out so that it splits longi- 

 Fic. 30. A portion of two striated muscle tudinally into finer portions 



fibre:,. Highly inaKiiific-.!. C A\\cA fibHIla?. Each of theSC 



, nucleus; the sarcolemma is represented fine ffon\\X also shows the light 

 l>y the line s, separated from the sub- , . . , , 



stance of the fibre, but no such separa- and dark transverse bands, 

 lion in reality exists. 'I he muscle is Well Supplied 



with blood-vessels, which enter 



the muscle between the fasciculi and break up into capillaries 

 between the fibres, these being gathered up again into veins 



9 



