AS CONNECTED WITH MUSCULAR FIBRE. 
553 
nevertheless, be found that the integrity of the shoulder-joint is 
but slightly injured. It will be found easier to break the bones in 
the attempt, than to tear the scapula from the humerus. Why is 
this? The capsular ligament is not so tense as to hold the bones 
closely together, nor so constructed as to offer very considerable 
resistance, while the muscular fibre gives way beneath the fingers. 
The scalpel will solve the mystery. The muscles of the shoulder 
are intersected by tendons, which, though expanded within the 
fleshy substance, can be distinctly traced from the scapula to the 
humerus in a direct and unbroken line. These tendons passing 
from bone to bone are the ligaments of the shoulder-joint. They 
bind the scapula and humerus together ; they give security to the 
articulation ; they admit of motion, and they limit it. While dis- 
tributed as intersecting membranes through the bodies of the 
muscles, they render traction upon the fleshy fibre impossible, yet 
by their pliability are capable of being acted upon when the in- 
herent contractility is excited. 
Wherever muscles appear exposed to tension, there are they 
found intersected by membranous layers of white fibrous tissue ; 
and the reason is obvious. Where the chance of tension is slight, 
the fleshy fibre is sufficiently protected by its sarcolemma or 
myolemma, and by its vaginal investment or fascia, both of which 
I am inclined to regard as not only bracing the contractile fibre, 
and preventing its displacement, but as also resisting any force 
calculated to excite its vital reaction. 
Applying these opinions pathologically, we come to the consi- 
deration of the much talked of “ shoulder lameness and where 
this existed, I should be far more inclined to seek the cause in 
sprain of the parts which are the ligaments of the joint, than ex- 
pect to see the muscular substance deranged ; for, if what I have 
asserted as to the use of the intersecting tendinous structure be 
established, then it is evident such structure must be injured before 
the muscular fibre could suffer lesion. My remark, however, should 
not be misunderstood. “ Shoulder lameness” is generally a chronic 
affection, and, in the slowness with which it reaches a termination, 
indicates that some structure of low vitality, such as the white 
fibrous tissue, is the seat of disease. The pain, nevertheless, 
would throw the muscle out of use : thus the more vital tissue 
would be involved, which, from its tendency to undergo speedy 
change, might be so altered, that though only secondarily affected, 
it would, if the case had existed for any time, when examined 
after death, present the more marked signs of disease, and thus 
mislead the investigator. This matter, however, requires observ- 
ation, and I here allude to it only to direct attention to the subject. 
I have nothing positive to advance. 
