PRINCIPLES Of veterinary surgery 29 



differences in the anatomy of their various bones and joints, 

 but in all probability the specific use to which an animal is 

 put, plays the most important part. The process is alw^ays 

 more or less hindered by imperfect immobilization of the 

 part. 



MUSCLE. — Of the three kinds of muscle tissue, striated 

 voluntary muscle has the most marked power of regenera- 

 tion. It is formed from the old muscle fibres only, and never 

 from connective tissue. It can take place independently of 

 any nerve supply. After an injury of striated muscle, the 

 broken ends necrose and become homogeneous irregular 

 clumps. The nuclei in the adjacent portions begin to multi- 

 ply and form chains, which accumulate in the swollen ends 

 of the old fibres presenting an appearance closely resembling 

 giant-cells. These are the "muscle-buds" of Neumann. 

 They are not always single ; in some places several buds may 

 be seen coming from one fibre. The new muscle fibres de- 

 velop from these multinucleated masses, which increase in 

 size and length, gradually presenting a longitudinal stria- 

 tion and then a transverse. As the fibres grow, they lose 

 their parallel arrangement and become entangled with one 

 another. The nuclei which at first occupy the middle of the 

 fibre later on take up a position nearer the surface and that 

 at further intervals apart. At this stage a new envelop or 

 sarcolemma is formed, probably from the surrounding con- 

 nective tissue. This has developed simultaneously with the 

 muscle, and if the wound be large, has formed a connective 

 tissue cicatrix, which the sewly formed fibres gradually in- 

 vade from opposite sides of the wound, and, if possible, meet 

 and interlace with one another. In this way the connective- 

 tissue scar disappears, unless the wound be too large for the 

 new. muscle to span. In time the great irregularity in the di- 

 rection of the fibres changes, and they become parallel as in 

 normal muscle. 



