118 THE HOUSE I LIVE IN. 



to break them "to pieces with our teeth as if 

 they were of real leather. The muscles, then, 

 usually terminate in tendons, and it is the latter 

 which grow to the bone ; though the muscles 

 sometimes grow to the bone directly at one of 

 their ends, without the help of tendons. 



STRUCTURE OF MUSCLES. The substance 

 of the muscle is thready or fibrous. You have 

 probably observed that a piece of lean meat, 

 when boiled, has this thready, fibrous appear- 

 ance. There is one thing about muscles which 

 does not so readily appear after boiling as it 

 does before. A piece of meat to be boiled, is 

 cut off in such a manner that it usually takes 

 parts of several different muscles ; and the 

 whole, in this way, seems like a solid or nearly 

 solid mass ; whereas it could be parted out, 

 with a very little care, each muscle by itself. 

 Such is the case with a piece of flesh taken 

 from the leg of the ox ; and such would be the 

 case with a piece taken from the human leg or 

 arm. These separate muscles are connected 

 to each other by means of what is called cellu- 

 lar substance, a fine woolly sort of membrane 



