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supra-spinalis and the teres minor, in the hand the muscles of the
palmar eminences, in the foot various fleshy fasciculi, in the
vertebral column the interspinal, in the head the small and great
anterior, posterior and lateral recti, exhibit more or less regularly the
form of which we are treating, and answer the double object that I
have indicated, on the one hand by the very considerable number
and on the other by the shortness of their fibres.
The short muscles are, more often than the broad, united to each
other, either in their origin or termination, as we see in the foot and
the hand. Sometimes they are of a triangular form, as in these two
parts; sometimes they approach to the form of a cube, of which
there is an example in the masseter and pterygoid muscles. In
general they are rarely covered by aponeuroses, undoubtedly
because the shortness of their fibres prevents them from being liable
in a great degree to considerable displacements.
Besides, the division of the muscles into long, broad and short, is,
like that of the bones, subject to an infinite number of modifications.
In fact many of these organs have mixed characters; thus the sub-
scapularis and the infra-spinalis have a form intermediate to the
broad and short one; thus the cruræus, the gemelli of the leg, &c.
cannot be considered precisely long or broad muscles. Nature varies,
according to the functions of the organs, the conformation of the
agents of their motions, and we can only establish approximations in
our anatomical divisions.

ARTICLE SECOND.
ORGANIZATION OF THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM
OF ANIMAL LIFE.
The part peculiar to a muscle is what is commonly called the
muscular fibre; the vessels, the nerves, the exhalants, the
absorbents and the cellular texture, which is very abundant around
this fibre, form its common parts.

I. Texture peculiar to the Organization of the Muscular

System of Animal Life.

The muscular fibre is red, soft, of an uniform size in the great and
small muscles, sometimes disposed in very evident fasciculi and
separated from each other by remarkable grooves, as in the gluteus
maximus, the deltoid, &c. sometimes more equally in juxta-position,
as in most of the broad muscles, always united to many others of
the same nature like it, easily by this union distinguished by the
naked eye, but eluding microscopic researches when we wish to
examine it in a separate manner, so great is its tenuity.
Notwithstanding this extreme tenuity, an infinite number of
researches have been made during the last age, to determine with
precision the size of this fibre. On this point may be read the result
of the labours of Leuwenhoek, Muysk, &c. I shall not give here this
result, because science can draw nothing from it, and because we
cannot rely upon its accuracy; of what importance moreover is the
precise size of the muscular fibre? its knowledge would add nothing
to our physiological views upon the motion of the muscles.
Every muscular fibre runs its course without bifurcating or dividing
in any manner, though many have thought otherwise; it is found
only in juxta-position to those which are near it, and not intermixed,
as often happens in the fibrous system; an arrangement that was
rendered necessary by the insulated motions it performs; for the
general contraction of a muscle is the union of many partial
contractions, wholly distinct and independent of each other.
The length of the fleshy fibres varies very much. If we examine in
general the mass which they form by their union, we observe that
this mass has sometimes much greater extent than the tendinous
portion of the muscle, as the biceps, the coraco-brachialis, the rectus
internus femoris, &c.; that sometimes its length is much less as in
the small plantar and palmar muscles, &c.; and that sometimes it is
about equal, as in the external radial, &c. If from the examination of
the fleshy mass, we pass to that of the separate fibres that compose
it, we see that the length of the first is rarely the same as that of the
second. There are hardly any but the sartorius and some analogous
muscles, whose fibres run the whole extent of the fleshy, mass; in
almost all the others, they are found obliquely arranged between
two aponeuroses, or between a tendon and an aponeurosis; so that
though each of them may be very short, as a whole they are very
long, as we observe in the anterior rectus of the thigh, the semi-
membranosus, &c. This arrangement may also arise from various
tendinous intersections, which cut at different distances the length
of the fibres. In general, the muscles which owe their length to long
fibres, have great extent and very little power of motion; whilst
those with short fibres, but multiplied so as to give great length as a
whole, are remarkable for an opposite character. And this is the
reason: all the fibres being equally large, whatever may be their
length, have the same degree of force; it is evident then that this
force considered in a muscle as a whole, is measured by the number
of its fibres. On the other hand, the longer a fibre is, the more it
shortens in its contraction; then by contracting, a muscle brings its
attachments so much the nearer in proportion as its fibres are
longer.
All the fibres of the voluntary muscles are straight, those of the
sphincters excepted. They are either parallel as in the rhomboids, or
obliquely situated in relation to each other, as in the great pectoral.
Sometimes in the same muscle many sets cross each other in
different directions, as we see in the masseter; but this crossing is
wholly different from that of the involuntary muscles in which there
is more crossing of fibres, whilst here we see only fasciculi in
different directions, in juxta-position to each other.
I shall not speak here of the cylindrical form according to some,
and the globular one according to others, of the fleshy fibre;
inspection teaches us nothing upon this point; how then can we
make that an object of research and give an opinion upon it, which
has no real foundation? Let us say thus much of the intimate nature
of this fibre, upon which so much has been written. It is unknown to
us, and all that has been said upon its continuity with the vascular
and nervous extremities, upon its pretended cavity, upon the
marrow, which according to some filled it, &c. is only a collection of
vague ideas, which nothing positive confirms, and to which a
methodical mind would not attend. Let us begin to study nature
where she begins to come under our senses. I would compare the
anatomical researches upon the intimate structure of the organs, to
the physiological researches upon the first causes of the functions.
In both we are without guides, without precise and accurate data;
why then give ourselves up to them?
All that we can know upon the nature of the muscular fibre, is that
it is peculiar, that it is not the same as that of the nerves, nor as that
of the vessels, nor as that of the tendons or the cellular texture; for
where there is identity of nature, there ought to be identity of vital
properties and of texture. Now we shall see that all these systems
differ essentially from each other in this point of view; there can be
between them no analogy in relation to their nature, whence the
properties are always derived.
The muscular texture is remarkable for its softness and small
degree of resistance. It is by this that it is essentially different from
the fibrous texture. It breaks with ease in the dead body. In the
living, this rupture is rare, because the contraction which exists in all
the violent efforts, gives it a density, by which it gains an enormous
increase of resistance, but which it loses when it is no longer in a
state of contraction. There are however examples of the rupture of
muscles; it is principally in the rectus abdominis and quadratus
lumborum that they take place. I have seen one in this last. Observe
that this muscle and all those placed between the ribs and the
pelvis, are much disposed, from their situation, to these ruptures. In
fact, when the pelvis and the thorax are carried in an opposite
direction, these muscles are so much the more violently stretched,
as in these motions all the superior part of the body forms with the
thorax, a great lever, which is moved in an opposite direction to
another great lever, which is formed by the pelvis and all the inferior
parts; now from their length, these levers are capable of receiving a
very great motion, of communicating it consequently to the
abdominal muscles which are stretched between the two, and which
serve to unite them. Hence how in a violent inclination to the right,
the quadratus of the left side can be torn, &c. Observe that but few
of the muscles in the economy are found between two levers so
great, consequently are capable of being so much distended, and
especially of being so with a force greater than that of their
contraction; for every muscular rupture supposes the excess of the
external motion, which distends, over that of the fleshy fibres which
contract to oppose this distension. If the external efforts were
concentrated upon a single muscle, they would be able more often
to overcome the resistance; but almost always many partake of the
effort to support and the resistance to oppose.

Composition of the Muscular Texture.

The muscular texture has been with chemists, a more particular

object of research than most of the other organized textures. They
have examined it under all its relations. I refer to their works, to that
of Fourcroy especially, for all which is not strictly relative to the
nature of this texture, for all which considers consequences not
applicable to physiology, which we can deduce from the knowledge
of the principles that enter into its composition.
Exposed to the action of the air, the muscular texture is affected in
two ways. 1st. It dries, if cut into thin slices, admitting of the
evaporation of the fluids it contains. Then its appearance is of a dull
brown; its fibres contract, it becomes thinner, hard and brittle. If
replunged into water within some days, even fifteen or thirty after its
drying, it resumes its primitive softness and form, and has a less
deep coloured tinge. The water that has been used for this softening
is more or less fetid, and similar to that of macerations. 2d. Exposed
in too great a mass to the air, the muscular texture does not dry, but
becomes putrid. Thus in making anatomical preparations by drying,
care should be taken to lessen the thickness of the fleshy parts, or
to arrange them so that the air can penetrate them everywhere.
Putrefaction is inevitable if the air is moist, if the evaporation of the
fluids is not quick enough to produce drying. When it becomes
putrid, the muscle assumes a green, livid colour; it exhales an
offensive odour. Under the influence of the same circumstances it
becomes putrid much quicker than the fibrous, the cartilaginous and
the fibro-cartilaginous systems. The odour that it exhales then is also
very different from that of these systems; a phosphoric light often
escapes from it. A mass of putridity, in which all the fibres have
almost disappeared, takes the place of the muscle, when
putrefaction is advanced. This mass of putridity gradually evaporates
in part, and there remains a dark brown residue, which dries and
becomes hard and brittle, nearly like the muscle dried in the ordinary
state, though the appearance however may be very different.
Exposed to the action of water, the muscle undergoes different
phenomena, according as it is hot or cold. Cold water takes from it
at first its red colour, of which it appears to dissolve the principle. To
effect quickly this phenomenon, it is necessary to expose the flesh,
at first in thin layers, to the action of water that is often changed, by
placing a muscle for example under a fountain, in the current of a
river, or what is much better, by frequently expressing the water it
imbibes; for if we keep it in a vessel, its exterior only whitens a little,
and the interior preserves its colour. Water which has been used to
wash a muscle, looks like blood spread out in this fluid; it contains
the colouring matter, a little of the extractive substance, gelatine, &c.
I believe that of all the organs the muscle is that from which we
remove most easily its colour by artificial means. Ought we to be
astonished after this, if nature varies so evidently and so frequently
this colour by the phenomena of nutrition, as we soon shall have
occasion to remark? Kept in water at a moderate temperature, the
muscular texture remains for a long time without softening; it finally
does, and changes layer by layer into a kind of putridity very
different however from that which is formed in the open air, as I
have frequently observed in macerating the muscles in a cellar, the
temperature of which is uniform. At other times, instead of
putrefying thus, the muscle is changed, as Fourcroy has remarked,
into a substance like spermaceti; then its fibre is hard and solid. But
all the muscles when kept in water by no means exhibit this
phenomenon. When it does take place, very often a kind of reddish
product, scattered here and there on the surface of the muscle, and
which is an evident effect of decomposition, announces and
afterwards accompanies this state, without which also, it often takes
place. Maceration in dissecting rooms frequently exhibits this
phenomenon.
When we have taken from the muscles their colouring substance
by repeated washings, there remains a white fibrous texture, from
which we can still extract albumen by ebullition, which rises in scum,
gelatine by suffering it to grow cold, extractive matter which has a
deep colour, by letting it settle, and some phosphoric salts. When all
these substances have disappeared, the residue of the muscle is a
fibrous substance, of a greyish colour, insoluble in warm water,
soluble in the weak acids, giving out much azote from the action of
the nitric acid, and presenting all the characters of the fibrin of the
blood. It appears, as Fourcroy has remarked, that this substance is
truly the nutritive substance of the muscle, that which, continually
exhaled and absorbed, contributes to its nutritive phenomena more
than all the others; it constitutes the essence of the muscle, it
especially characterizes it, as the phosphate of lime is the nutritive
characteristic matter of the bones. Is this substance formed in the
blood and carried from it to the muscle, or is it formed in the muscle
by nutrition, and thence carried to the blood? I know not. Whichever
may be the case, it appears to experience very great varieties in its
exhalation and absorption. The state of laxity, of cohesion, the
thousand various appearances of the muscular texture, appear to
belong in part to these varieties of proportion. Thus the phosphate
of lime or gelatine, diminished by nutrition, give to the bones
softness or brittleness.
 It is in this fibrous and essential portion of the muscle, that
particularly resides the faculty of crisping by the action of caloric,
whether by plunging a muscle into boiling water, or exposing it to
the fire; for this crisping is as evident in the muscle deprived of its
colouring matter, its gelatine, its albumen, and even a portion of its
extractive substance as in the ordinary muscle. There is in general a
constant relation between the quantity of this fibrous substance
contained in the muscles, and the quantity that the blood contains of
it. In the strong, vigorous, sanguineous temperaments, as they are
called, the muscles are thick and much more fibrous. In all the slow
cachexiæ in which the blood is impoverished, the pulse small and
feeble and in which muscular nutrition has had time to share but
little of the fibrin of the blood, the muscles are small, weak, soft, &c.
In general, the muscles and the blood are always in constant
relation, whilst other systems often predominate and whilst this fluid
seems to be in less quantity in the economy.
Exposed for a long time to ebullition, as in common boiled meat,
the muscular texture, still united to the adjacent organs, and to its
common parts, gives, 1st, an albuminous scum which appears to
arise more from the lymph of the cells than from the muscle itself;
2d, many fatty drops coming also especially from the cellular
texture, almost foreign consequently to the texture of the muscle,
and which swim on its surface; 3d, gelatine formed especially by the
aponeurotic intersections; 4th, an extractive substance which colours
in part the water in which it is boiled, gives it a peculiar taste and
remains in part adherent to the flesh to which it communicates a
deep tinge wholly different from that of raw flesh, a tinge which
arises also from the colouring matter of the muscle, and which
moreover changes, when the liquor cools, into a less deep and even
a whitish tinge; 5th, various salts which contribute much to the taste
of the liquor, and the nature of which chemists have ascertained.
These are the natural phenomena of the ebullition of the muscle.
The more extensive analysis of boiled flesh is not my province; but
what ought not to escape us here, are the phenomena of which the
fibre is the seat, whilst the preceding products are extracted,
whether from it, or the surrounding textures. These phenomena can
be referred to three periods. 1st. When the water is only tepid, and
even a little above the temperature of the body, it leaves the
muscular texture in the same state, or softens it a little. 2d. When it
approaches ebullition and begins to be covered with an albuminous
scum, the texture crisps, thickens and contracts and gives to the
muscle a density much greater than what is natural to it, and
augments considerably its resistance. I have observed that in this
state the muscles bear much greater weights than in a natural state.
They approximate, if we may so say, that remarkable density which
characterizes them when they contract in the living body, and which
so powerfully opposes their rupture. This condensation of the
muscular texture, which is prompt and sudden, increases till the
period of ebullition, when it is at its greatest height; it continues only
for a certain time. 3d. Gradually it diminishes, the fibres soften, and
are more easily torn than in their natural state. This softening, the
reverse of the hardening that precedes, is produced slowly and by
degrees. When arrived to a certain degree, the meat is rendered fit
for the table. Observe that then the muscle has not returned to the
state in which it was found before the hardening; among other
phenomena which distinguish it, the following is an essential one; it
has lost the power of crisping, of acquiring the horny hardness, from
the action of the concentrated acids, from alkohol or from caloric. In
general it becomes putrid more slowly. Its putrefaction does not give
the same odour. We know how much its taste differs. The principles
it has lost are undoubtedly one of the great causes of these
differences.
When a muscle is exposed to an open fire, as in the roasting of
meat, the albumen is condensed, the gelatine melts, the fibrin filled
with juices softens, the extractive matter flows in part with the
gelatine and the salts held in solution; it is this that forms the gravy,
which is, as we know, very different from melted fat. The exterior of
the meat remains more dense than the interior; it is coloured by the
extractive substance. The interior loses in part its natural colour; its
consistence, its taste and its composition even change entirely. The
fibres, as in ebullition, lose the power of contracting and of crisping
from the action of strong stimuli and especially that of fire.
No part in the animal economy is more easily altered by the
digestive juices than the muscles. Almost all stomachs can bear
boiled meat, whilst many reject other organs when cooked.
Carnivorous animals seize upon the muscles of their prey in
preference to the pectoral and gastric viscera. Muscular flesh is with
most people the most common aliment, that with which they are
never disgusted; it appears to be the most nourishing of all those,
which are afforded by the different textures of animals; is it, as it
has been said, because it contains the most azote? Whatever may
be the reason, the general part which the muscular system takes in
the digestion of all carnivorous animals, of man especially, is
remarkable. Yet all the parts of this system do not appear to be
equally agreeable to the taste of animals. It is, for example, a
singular fact, that those bodies which are brought to our dissecting
rooms, and which have been attacked by rats, are found almost
always exclusively gnawed in the muscles of the face.
Observe in regard to the use of the muscles in digestion, that it is
the portion of the fibrous system which adheres to them, and forms,
as it were, a part of them, I refer to the tendons, which is the most
easily altered by maceration, by ebullition and by the digestive
juices. Observe also that the great mass which the muscles form in
the body of all animals, of which they are more than one third,
presents to the carnivorous species ample materials for their
nutrition; thus nature, by multiplying these organs for the wants of
the individual which they move, seems to multiply them also for
those of the individuals which he is one day to nourish. In forming
them in each species, it labours for other species as well as for this.
Who knows if this general design, which observation finds in the
series of all animals, be not the cause of this remarkable
predominance which the muscles have over the other systems? Who
knows, if nature would not have diminished the powers of the
animal mechanism which are so numerous and so complicated in
comparison with those of artificial machines, who knows if she would
not have simplified the means and given the same results, if the
motions of the animals had been the only object of the formation of
the muscles?
The sex has great influence on the quality of the flesh of animals.
I do not believe that any thing precise is known as to the nature of
the influence which the genital parts exert upon it; but the following
are remarkable facts upon this subject. The muscles of males are
stronger and better nourished, have more taste, resist boiling for a
longer time, are firmer, &c. Boiling water on the contrary alters
quicker the texture of females; it is more tender and gives to the
liquor a less strong taste. In the season of sexual intercourse, the
muscular system of the first has a peculiar odour, which often
renders it disagreeable even to the taste. It is an observation that is
easily made in quadrupeds, birds and fishes that are brought to our
tables. Without having as strong an odour, the flesh of the second
becomes at this period soft, flaccid and but little savoury.

II. Parts common to the Organization of the Muscular

System of Animal Life.

Cellular Texture.

The cellular texture is very abundant in the muscular system; I

know of no system that has a greater proportion of it. This texture
forms a very evident covering around each muscle. This covering is
most commonly loose, filled with fat, easily distended with air in
emphysema and serum in anasarca. At other times it is more dense,
compact and really arranged like a membrane. Such, for example, is
the case with that which covers the great oblique muscle of the
abdomen, and the dissection of which on this account, students at
first find very difficult. The other abdominal muscles, the trapezius,
the serratus major and the great dorsal exhibit also this
arrangement. We might say that in this way nature compensated for
the aponeuroses, which are wanting on the broad muscles of the
trunk. Besides, this covering has only a membranous appearance; it
has nothing of its organization, it disappears in the infiltration in
which all the true membranes remain.
Besides this general covering of the muscle, each fasciculus has a
less covering, each fibre a still less one, and each smaller one a real
though almost insensible sheath. We can then represent the cellular
texture of the muscles as forming a series of coverings successively
decreasing. These coverings favour the motion of the fibres which
they separate, either by the serum of the cells, or by the fat they
contain, both fluids, by lubricating, allow them to slip more easily
upon each other. Frequently between these fibres, the cellular
texture appears to form a kind of cross pieces which go at right
angles. We see this arrangement especially in the proper extensor of
the great toe, and in the common extensor, the fleshy fasciculi of
which are broad and delicate when distended. In most of the thick
muscles nothing similar is observed.
The quantity of intermuscular cellular texture is remarkably
variable. In general, in all the broad muscles and in all the large,
long muscles, it is very abundant. It is less in proportion between
the fibres of those of the vertebral canals. Back of the neck, the
splenii, complexi, &c. have less of it than many others, especially in
the spaces that separate them.
Sometimes very considerable cellular elongations are found in the
middle of the muscles, and seem to divide them into two; such is
that which separates the clavicular portion of the great pectoral; this
has even sometimes embarrassed anatomists as to the division of
these organs.
The cellular texture in general fixes the muscles in their position;
the art of dissection proves it. The effusions of pus which often
perform the office of the scalpel, render also very evident this use,
which does not prevent the motion in all directions, that the great
extensibility of the cellular texture allows. The cellular texture not
only fixes the muscles to each other, but it also attaches each of
their fibres to neighbouring ones; it flattens them when they
contract, and elongates them when they are distended; if they are
deprived of it their motions become irregular and uncertain. I have
many times separated with a scalpel a muscle laid bare in a living
animal, into many small fasciculi; in afterwards making this muscle
contract by the irritation of the medulla, by means of a stilet
introduced into its canal, I have observed in an evident manner this
irregularity of motion. Cut longitudinally a muscle of an extremity
from its superior tendon to its inferior, so as to divide it into two or
three entirely distinct portions, irritate afterwards one of these
portions, the other or the two others will remain almost always at
rest, whilst a single irritated fibre in a sound muscle, puts in motion
the whole of that muscle. The section of the vessels and the nerves
has no doubt a little influence upon this phenomenon; but that of
the cellular texture certainly contributes to it also.
In dropsical subjects, the serum of the intermuscular texture is
often reddish; this phenomenon is owing to the action of this serum
after death upon the colouring substance. I believe that this can
take place during life only with great difficulty. The fat sometimes
abounds in this texture, to such a degree that the fleshy fibres
disappear and the fat only is visible; but oftentimes also the yellow
appearance of the muscular fibres, which is produced by the
absence of the colouring substance, is taken for this fatty state of
the muscles. I have seen the first state but rarely; the second is
extremely frequent; we are sometimes deceived at first view. But
ebullition and combustion easily prove, that the fat is wholly foreign
to this want of colour of the muscles examined in this state.

Blood Vessels.

The arteries of the muscles are very apparent; they come from the
neighbouring trunks, penetrate the whole circumference of the
organ, more however towards its middle, than towards its
extremities. They run at first between the principal fasiculi, then
divide and their divisions go between the secondary fasciculi,
subdivide and wind between the fibres, and finally become
capillaries and accompany the small fibres, in which they deposit by
the exhalant system the nutritive matter. There are but few organs,
which have, in proportion to their size, more blood than the muscles.
The blood is essentially necessary to support their excitability, as
we shall see; it is that which colours the muscular texture, but not,
as it at first seems, by circulating in its texture. The circulating or
free portion contributes but little to it. It is the portion combined
with the muscular texture, that which contributes to its nutrition,
that gives it its colour; the following are proofs of it: 1st. The fibres
of the intestines are as much or more penetrated with the circulating
blood, than those of the muscles of animal life, and yet their texture
is evidently whitish, where these vessels are not found. 2d. Many
animals with red and cold blood, frogs in particular, have muscles
almost white, and yet many red vessels run through this white
texture. 3d. I have observed that in animals destroyed by asphyxia,
the colouring substance does not change colour, no doubt because it
is slowly combined with the muscle by nutrition; that on the
contrary, if we cut a muscle of these animals in the last moments of
life, whilst the venous blood still circulates in the arterial system, this
blood flows out by black jets from the muscular arteries, the
muscular texture itself remaining red. This curious experiment,
which I have noticed in another work, is made by producing
asphyxia in an animal by compressing the trachea, or by intercepting
the air in any other way in this tube, whilst we examine the system
of the muscles. When a muscle has been exposed for some time to
the contact of the air, to that of oxygen especially, its red colour
becomes evidently more brilliant.
The muscular vessels permit under certain circumstances the
escape of the blood they contain; hence different kinds of
remarkable hemorrhages, especially in scorbutic patients, sometimes
in putrid fevers, rarely or never in those diseases that are
characterized by an increase of vitality. Infiltrated with blood in
preternatural hemorrhages, particularly in false aneurisms, the
muscles lose in part their motion; this happens also in contusions, in
which similar infiltrations are observed.
The veins everywhere follow the arteries in the muscles; they
have the same distributions, and receive from the contractions of
these organs an essential assistance to their action. The throw of
blood is more powerful when the patient we have bled contracts his
muscles, than when he relaxes them; the fluid is as it were
expressed, as from a wet sponge which is squeezed. The arterial
circulation does not exhibit this phenomenon. I have observed that if
we open the artery of the foot of an animal, and by the irritation of
the nerves, make the muscles of the leg and thigh, through which
this artery passes before reaching the foot, contract powerfully, the
throw of blood is not stronger than during the relaxation.
I have many times injected the veins of the muscles of animal life
with ease, from the trunks towards the branches, which makes me
believe, notwithstanding what Haller has said, that in these organs,
as in the heart, the valves are less numerous than in many others.
No doubt the assistance the veins derive from their surrounding
organs supplies the place of these folds, or rather renders them
useless, the weight of the column of blood not making a great effort
against the venous parietes. The varices of the muscular veins are,
as we know, extremely rare. These veins are of two orders; one
accompanies the arteries and follows the same course, the others
are spread superficially on the surface of the organ, without having
corresponding arteries.
There are absorbents and exhalants in the muscles; but we can
with difficulty trace the first, and the second cannot be perceived.

Nerves.

Almost all the nerves of the muscles of animal life come from the
brain; the ganglions furnish a few of them; when this happens, as in
the neck, the pelvis, &c. besides the filaments coming from these
nervous centres, there are always filaments of cerebral nerves;
without this, these muscles would be involuntary. Few organs receive
more nerves in proportion to their size than the muscles. In general
the extensors appear to have rather fewer than the flexors; but the
difference is trifling. It is true that all the great nervous trunks are in
the direction of flexion, that in that of extension there are only
branches, as we see in the posterior part of the arm, of the fore-
arm, the vertebral column, &c. It is true also that this remark is
likewise applicable to the existence of the vessels, which are larger
and more numerous in the first than in the second direction; but this
greater number of vessels and nerves arises from this, that there are
many more flexors than extensors, that the first are stronger and
have more numerous fibres; so that each of these fibres hardly
receives more nervous or vascular filaments in one kind of muscles
than in the other. I think that there is but little foundation for what
has been said upon the difference of the strength of the fibres of the
flexors and of the extensors, upon the predominance of the first, &c.
If these are superior, it is either because they are more numerous,
as in the foot, the hand, &c. or more advantageously arranged, as in
the trunk on which the abdominal muscles act very far from the
point of attachment to bend the spine, whilst to extend it, the dorsal
muscles exert their action immediately at the side of this point of
attachment, as also in the neck, where the muscles that draw down
the lower jaw and head when this bone is fixed, are much further
from the occipital condyles, than the muscles which produce
extension. Whatever may be the cause of the superiority of the
flexors, the fact cannot be doubted. 1st. In hysterical convulsions, in
those of infants, in all the spasmodic motions in which the will has
no part, the contractions take place much more in the direction of
flexion than in that of extension. 2d. In old people the flexors finally
become superior to the extensors; for example, the fingers and toes
are almost uniformly bent. 3d. In all the motions, the power is
always on the side of flexion.
 The nerves enter the muscles of the extremities at a very acute
angle, because the nervous trunks are in the natural direction of
these organs. In the trunk, on the contrary, the nerves going from
the spine, the cervical especially, enter their muscles at almost a
right angle or one less evidently acute; this circumstance is of no
importance. Each branch in the fleshy fibres, is at first divided and
then sub-divided in their interstices, and afterwards lost in their
texture. Does each fibre receive a small nervous filament? We should
be led to believe so from this observation, that the principal branch
being irritated, all the fibres are put into action, no one remains
inert. But on the other hand, if we irritate one of them, all move
also, which is certainly a sympathetic phenomenon or one arising
from the communication of the cells.
Are the nerves deprived of their cellular coverings, and do they
become pulpy when they enter the muscles? Dissection has shewn
me nothing like it.

ARTICLE THIRD.
PROPERTIES OF THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM OF
ANIMAL LIFE.
There are but few systems in the economy in which the vital
properties and those of texture are found in so great and evident a
degree as in this. It is from the muscles that examples must be
selected to give a precise and accurate idea of these properties. The
physical properties on the contrary are slightly marked in them; a
remarkable softness characterizes them; there is no elastic power in
their texture; there is but very little resistance from this texture after
death; it is from vitality that it derives the power that characterizes it
in its functions.
 I. Properties of Texture. Extensibility.

Extensibility is manifested in the animal muscular system under

many circumstances. The different motions of our parts render this
property evident. Such is in fact the arrangement of the muscular
system, that one of its portions cannot contract, without the
distension of another. The thigh being strongly bent, the semi-
membranosus, the semi-tendinosus and the biceps are elongated.
The arm being carried out, the great pectoral is extended, being
raised, the great dorsal and the teres major are stretched. All the
great flexions bring into action this property in the extensors; all the
extensions render it evident in the flexors. A muscle which is
stretched by its antagonist is in a state purely passive; it is as it were
for a moment abandoned by its contractility, or rather it possesses it,
without its being brought into action; it is made to obey the motion
that is communicated to it. Observe that in these cases, the
distension is confined to the fleshy portion, and the tendon has no
connexion with it; it remains the same, whatever may be the
distance, of the points of attachment, for these points are nearer or
more remote in the different extensions to which the muscles are
exposed; the longest muscles yield the easiest. The sartorius, the
posterior muscles of the thigh, &c. exhibit this phenomenon in an
evident manner; as their position is accommodated to it. In general
all the muscles remarkable for their length are superficial, and go
most commonly to two articulations, sometimes even to three or
four, as in the limbs. Now the number of these articulations renders
the space comprised between the two points of attachment
susceptible of very great variations, which the great extensibility of
these muscles allows. It may be understood from what has been
said above, that it is to the length of the fleshy fibres and to the
whole length of the muscle, that its degree of extensibility is to be
referred. Those in which many aponeuroses are intermixed, and
which derive in part from these membranes or from tendons their
length, possess less of this property. Hence why, in the same
motions, muscles of the same total length become more or less
short, more or less elongated in their fleshy portion. Observe
however that when on the one hand the tendinous portion
predominates much, and on the other that it is very delicate, it yields
a little, as we see in the small plantar and palmar muscles.
If from the natural state we pass to the morbid, we see the
muscular extensibility manifested in a much more evident degree. In
the face, the air accumulated in the mouth, swells it by elongating
the buccinators; the various tumours of this cavity, as the fungous
and sarcomatous ones, often distend the small facial muscles in a
manner which would astonish us, if we considered the naturally
small extent of these muscles which are trebled and even
quadrupled. The muscles of the eye-lids and the eye in the large
carcinomas of that organ, those of the anterior part of the neck in
the great swellings of the thyroid gland, the great pectoral in large
aneurisms or in other tumours of the axilla, the abdominal muscles
in pregnancy, in dropsy, in the various tumours of the abdomen, &c.
the broad and superficial muscles of the back from wens that are
under them, present us these phenomena of distension in a
remarkable manner. The muscles of the extremities are less subject
to them, because on the one hand fewer causes develop tumours
beneath them, and because on the other the aponeuroses do not
yield so easily to these phenomena.

Contractility of Texture.

The contractility of texture is carried to the highest point in the

muscles. These organs have a continual tendency to contraction,
especially when by being elongated, they have surpassed their
natural size. This tendency is independent of the action of the
nerves, and of the irritable property of the muscular texture. It is
influenced by life, but it is not entirely dependent on it; it depends
essentially on the structure of the muscles. The remarkable
phenomenon of the antagonist muscles results from it. The following
is this phenomenon.
 Each moveable point of the animal frame is always between two
opposite muscular forces, between those of flexion and extension, of
elevation and depression, of adduction and abduction, of rotation
without and rotation within, &c. This opposition is a condition
essential to the motions; for in order to perform one of them, it is
necessary that the moveable point should be in the opposite motion;
in order to bend, it is necessary that it should be first extended, and
reciprocally. The two opposite positions which a moveable part
takes, are for it alternately the point of departure and the point of
arrival; the two extremes of these positions are the two limits
between which it can move. Now between these limits there is a
middle point; it is the point of rest of the moveable part; when it is
found there, the muscles are in their natural state; when it passes it,
some are extended, others are contracted, and such is their
arrangement, that the contraction and extension which take place in
an opposite direction, are exactly in direct ratio. Hence, in the
reciprocal influence that the muscles exert upon each other, they are
alternately active and passive, power and resistance, organs moved
and organs which move. The effect of every muscle which contracts
is not then only to act upon the bone in which it is inserted, but also
upon the opposite muscle. Between two muscles thus opposed,
there is often no solid intermediate organs, as in the lips, the linea
alba, &c. The muscle of one side acts then directly upon that which
corresponds to it, in order to distend it. Now this action of the
muscles upon each other is precisely the phenomenon of the
antagonists; two muscles are such when one cannot contract
without elongating the other and vice versa. Let us examine in this
phenomenon the part of the contractility of texture; it is necessary
to distinguish its influence from that of the vital forces, which has
not been heretofore sufficiently done.
A muscle once placed in the middle position, can only be removed
from it by the influence of the vital forces, by the animal or sensible
organic contractility, because in this position the contractility of
texture of its antagonist is equal to its own, and there is
consequently required a force added to this to overcome that which
is opposed to it. But if the muscle is found in one of the two extreme
positions, for example in adduction, abduction, flexion, extension,
&c. then there will be an inequality of action in the antagonists, as it
respects the contractility of texture; the one most stretched, will
make in order to contract itself, an effort much greater than that
which is already contracted. To maintain the equilibrium, it is
necessary then that the vital forces continue to influence the
contracted muscles. Thus every extreme position of the limbs and of
any moveable part, cannot in an ordinary state be supported except
by the influence of the vital forces. When these forces cease to be in
action, immediately the contractility of texture of the elongated
muscle, which had a tendency to exert itself, but was prevented,
exerts itself, becomes efficacious, and draws back the moveable part
to the middle position, a position in which the equilibrium is
restored. Hence why in all the cases in which the cerebral influence
has no power over the muscles, in which they are not irritated by
stimulants, the limbs are uniformly found in a medium position
between extension and flexion, abduction and adduction, &c. This is
the case in sleep, in the fœtus, &c. I have shewn elsewhere how the
osseous arrangement of each articulation is adapted to this
phenomenon, how every kind of relation between the articular
surfaces, except that of this medium position, exhibits a forced state
in which some ligaments are necessarily more stretched than others,
and in which the osseous surfaces are never in so general contact as
in this position. In certain fevers which have so deleterious an
influence upon the muscular life and texture, the horizontal
prostration and extension of the extremities do not arise from an
increase of the action of the extensors, but from the want of energy
of the flexors, which have not power to overcome the weight of the
limb; thus observe that every analogous attitude always coincides
with the signs of general weakness; this is the attitude of putrid
fevers, &c.
The section of a living muscle presents us with two phenomena
which are evidently the product of the contractility of texture.
 1st. The two ends retract in opposite directions; there exists
between these divided ends a space proportional to the retraction.
This retraction is not in proportion, as has been thought, to the
degrees of the contractions of the muscle; if it was, it would be
sufficient in a transverse wound, in order to bring the divided edges
together, to place the limb in the greatest possible relaxation; now
oftentimes, in these cases, these ends still remain at a distance;
then the retraction is often superior to the greatest contraction of
the muscle considered in its natural state.
2d. The antagonist of the divided muscle which has no effort to
overcome, contracts and makes the moveable part incline from its
side, if there are not other muscles, which acting in the direction of
the first supply its functions. This last phenomenon takes place also
to a certain extent in paralysis of the face. The mouth is then drawn
from the sound side. I have observed however in this respect, that
this deviation is never as evident as it would be by the division of
the paralytic muscle, which has preserved its contractility of texture.
This remaining contractility forms a partial equilibrium with that of
the muscles of the sound side, during the absence of motions; thus
the deviations do not become very evident until the patients wish to
speak, until consequently the vital forces bring into action the sound
muscles, which the others cannot oppose. The paralysis of the
sterno-mastoideus exhibits for the whole head a phenomenon
analogous to that which the preceding muscles produce for the
mouth. Strabismus also oftentimes arises from this cause.
In general in all the phenomena, it is necessary to distinguish that
which belongs to the vital forces, from that which arises from the
contractility of texture. The muscles are antagonists as it respects
these forces, as well as it respects this contractility; now as the
contraction dependant on the nervous influence or irritability, is
much more conspicuous than that arising from the organic texture,
the phenomena of the antagonists are much more striking in
paralysis, when the sound muscles are brought into action in the
first manner. It appears that in many cases of paralysis, the
contractility of texture of the affected side is also a little altered; but
it is never so completely destroyed, that in the amputation of a
paralyzed limb, there is no muscular retraction. I have made this
experiment upon a dog; the nerves having been cut ten days before,
and the limb having remained immoveable since that period, the
division of the muscles produced a manifest separation between
their edges; and even, in afterwards cutting for the sake of
comparison the limb that remained sound, I did not find any
difference.
It is especially when muscles have been first stretched, and this
stretching has ceased, that the contractility of texture becomes
evident. The puncture in ascites and an accouchement as it respects
the abdominal muscles, the opening of deep abscesses as it respects
those of the trunk, the extirpation of a tumour situated under any
muscle, &c. show us this property in action in a very striking manner.
There is however an observation to be made on this point, viz. that
if the extension has been of long continuance, or if it has been
frequently repeated, the subsequent contraction is much less,
because the muscular texture has been weakened by the painful
state in which it has been; hence, 1st, the flaccidity of the abdomen
after repeated pregnancy; 2d, the laxity of the scrotum, after the
puncture of an old hydrocele; 3d, I have seen at Desault's a man
who was operated upon in Germany for a fungus in the mouth, and
who had, on that side on which the disease had been, remarkable
wrinkles, owing to the greater extent of the fleshy part of that side,
which could no longer contract like the other; mastication, at this
time could only be performed on the sound side; 4th, when women
have had many children, the diaphragm is weakened by repeated
pressure, and hence in part the greater mobility of the ribs, which
compensate in some measure in females for the deficiency of action
of this muscle. I think that in many chronic affections of the chest
and abdomen, in which there is a long continued distension of this
muscle, physicians ought more than they do, to have regard to this
cause of difficulty of respiration, when the principle of distension no
longer exists, as after the evacuation of dropsies, &c.
 The extent of the contractility of texture is in the muscles in
proportion to the length of the fibres; hence why in amputations, the
superficial part retracts more than the deep-seated; why in sleep the
phenomena of contractility of texture are very apparent in the
extremities, the muscles of which are very long; why, in the
antagonists, nature has in general opposed muscles of proportional
length; why consequently, a muscle with long fibres has rarely for a
counterpoise one with short ones, and vice versa. The flexors and
extensors of the arm, the fore-arm, the thigh and the leg are nearly
of the same extent; the rotators of the humerus within and without,
the first inserted into the sub-spinal depression, the others into the
sub-scapular, resemble each other also in this respect. The
proportion between the antagonists is still more remarkable on the
face, where the same muscles act most commonly in an opposite
direction on each side of the median line.
The quickness of the contractions, arising from the contractility of
texture, is not like that produced by the animal or sensible organic
contractility, which is uniformly more or less marked, according as
the nervous influence of the stimulant acts more or less strongly.
Every motion originating from the contractility of texture is slow,
uniform and regular; it is only when the muscular texture is
weakened that it diminishes; it does not increase except when this
texture is more developed; hence it follows that the varieties of
quickness can only be observed in different individuals, or in the
same individual at different periods, and not, as in the exercise of
the vital forces, from one instant to another. This is a great and
remarkable difference between the two species of properties.
Death weakens the contractility of texture but does not annihilate
it; a muscle being cut retracts a long time after life has left it.
Putrefaction alone puts a limit to the existence of this property. It is
the same with regard to extensibility. I would observe however that
while the muscles retain the vital heat, they have more power of
retraction, than when the chill of death has seized them.
 Haller places on the same line and derives from the same
principles, the phenomena resulting from the contractility of texture,
which, with some slight differences, answers to his dead power, and
those produced by the action of the concentrated acids, alkohol, fire,
&c. on animal substances, which crisp, contract and acquire the
horny hardness from the effect of these different agents. But there
are many differences which essentially separate these phenomena
from each other. 1st. The contractility of texture is very slight in the
organs in which the faculty of having the horny hardness is very
evident, for example, in all the organs of the fibrous, fibro-
cartilaginous, serous systems, &c. &c. 2d. The contractility of texture
is distributed in very various degrees, to the different parts; from the
muscles and the skin, which possess the greatest degree of it, to the
cartilages which seem destitute of it, there are many variations; on
the contrary, the faculty of acquiring the horny hardness from the
agents pointed out is almost uniformly distributed, or at least its
differences are much less evident. 3d. One becomes nothing in dried
organs, the other is evidently preserved for many years, as
parchment is a proof. 4th. The first clearly receives an increase of
power from life, especially in the muscles; the second appears to be
hardly modified by it. 5th. This always exhibits sudden effects, rapid
contractions. To feel the contact of the fire, of the concentrated
acids or alkohol, and to assume the horny hardness, are two
phenomena which the second brings together in the animal parts;
the contractility of texture, on the contrary, exerts itself but slowly,
as we have said. 6th. This last can never give to the parts, the
muscles especially, that remarkable density which they exhibit in
their horny hardening. 7th. The absence of extension of the fibres is
the only thing necessary for the contractility of texture which has an
unceasing tendency to activity; it requires on the contrary in order to
crisp the fibres, that they should be in contact with a foreign body. I
could add to these many proofs, in order to establish an essential
difference between the phenomena confounded by the illustrious
physiologist of Switzerland.
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